Vesti la giubba

Haven’t written anything for a while now, but among many other things that somehow impeded me of doing this, I have seen/listened to Leoncavallo’s amazing Pagliacci (see here a short synopsis) in the even more amazing Arena di Verona! I have to single out Nedda’s/Columbina’s role, fantastically performed by Svetla Vassileva, and particularly the magistral performance of Canio/Pagliaccio by Jose Cura. These adjectives & adverbs (amazing, fantastically, magistral) are really intended, btw!

And since Vesti la giubba remained imprinted in my memory, I thought of sharing this with you. So here are the lyrics (you’re expected to know enough Italian to get this, otherwise you find translation in any language, everywhere on the internet):

“Recitar! Mentre preso dal delirio.
Non so piu quel che dico e quel che faccio!
Eppur … e d’uopio … sforzati!
Bah! Se’tu forse un uom!
Tu se’ Pagliaccio!
Vesti la giubba e la faccia infarina.
La gente paga e rider vuole qua.
E se Arlecchin t’invola Columbina,
Ridi, Pagliaccio, e ognun applaudira!
Tramuta in lazz lo spasmo ed il pianto:
In una smorfia il singhiozzo il dolore…
Ridi, Pagliaccio, sul tuo amore infranto!
Ridi del duol che l’avvelena il cor!”

And further, you can actually listen to some beautiful recordings of it by Alessandro Valente (this is from 1927!) or Carlo Bergonzi (from 1951) or Franco Corelli ( recorded in 1954) . My favourite is nevertheless Caruso’s (ageless!)- here’s a video of it.

Ridi, Pagliaccio…