As in 'Cavalleria,' the theme of
the story is squalid and unpleasant, though lucid and undeniably
effective for stage purposes. The music makes an effective accompaniment
to the exciting incidents of the plot, but it has few claims to
intrinsic interest. Leoncavallo is never much of a melodist, and
'Pagliacci' teems with reminiscences. The opera was probably written in
a hurry, in order to pander to the taste for melodrama which
'Cavalleria' had excited. In 'I Medici' (1893), a tale of the Florentine
Renaissance, Leoncavallo aimed far higher. Here, too, however, his music
is for the most part a string of ill-digested reminiscences, though
scored with such extraordinary cleverness and fertility of resource as
almost to disguise the inherent poverty of the score. 'Chatterton'
(1896) was a failure, but 'La Boheme' (1897), though somewhat cast into
the shade by Puccini's work upon the same subject, scored a decided
success. Leoncavallo's music is conceived in a totally different mood
from that of Puccini. He has little of Puccini's grace and tenderness,
but he treated the scenes of Bohemian life with amazing energy and
spirit, if with an occasional suggestion of brutality. 'Zaza' (1900),
founded upon a French play which recently achieved a scandalous
notoriety, has found little favour even in Italy. Leoncavallo's latest
work, 'Der Roland,' was written in response to a commission from the
German Emperor, who believed that he had found in the composer of 'I
Medici' a musician worthy to celebrate the mighty deeds of the
Hohenzollerns.
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