Leoncavallo, Ruggiero

Preface

Leoncavallo, Ruggiero – Zingari, dramma lirico (full opera score with Italian libretto)

(b. Naples, 23 April 1847 – d. Montecatini Terme, 9 August 1919)

Preface
When one hears the name of the Italian composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo, one automatically thinks of his opera ‘Pagliacci’, premiered in Milan in 1892, which is often performed together with Mascagni’s ‘Cavalleria rusticana’ and has made it into the standard theatre repertoire. However, it is less well known that Leoncavallo wrote many other operas and operettas. One of these is ‘Zingari’, which means ‘Gypsy’.

But first, who was Ruggiero Leoncavallo? The Italian composer and librettist was born in Naples on 23 April 1847, the son of a judge. At the age of eight, he was an external student at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella, where he received piano lessons from Benjamino Cesi (1845-1907), harmony lessons from Michele Ruta and composition lessons from Paolo Serrao and Lauro Rossi. For many years, he had to make a living as a singing and piano teacher. He also travelled through European coffee houses giving concerts. His operatic compositions also include ‘I Medici’, ‘Chatterton’, ‘La Bohéme’, ‘Zazá’, ‘Der Roland von Berlin’, Maia’, “Zingari”, “Mimi Pinson”, “Mameli”, “Edipo Re” and numerous operettas such as “La jeunesse de Figaro”, “Malbruk”, “La reginetta delle rose”, ’Are you There? ’, ‘La candidata’, ‘Priestami tua moglie’, ‘A chi la giarrettiera?’ and ‘La maschera nuda’. Leoncavallo died in Montecatini Terme on 9 August 1919.

His opera ‘Zingari’ based on the narrative poem ‘The Gypsies’ by Alexander Pushkin, published in 1827. Enrico Cavacchioli and Guglielmo Emanuel turned it into a libretto. The work was premiered at the Hippodrome in London on 16 September 1912. The singers were Rinalda Pavoni as Fleana, Egidio Cunego as Radu, Armando Santolini as the Old Man and Ernesto Caronna as Tamar. The US premiere took place in 1913 at the Grand Opera Company Chicago with Carolina White in the role of Fleana. In the USA, unlike in Europe, this work is performed more frequently alongside ‘Pagliacci’.

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