The Show Must Go On

Listen to Luciano Pavarotti, the famous tenor, sing while you read!

Ruggero Leoncavallo, aside from his wonderful mustache, is most well known for his famous opera I Pagliacci. Written in 1892, I Pagliacci is a tragedy about a clown in a performing troupe who finds out that his wife is cheating on him and demands answers from her in the middle of a performance. When she refuses, he murders her and her lover, closing their play and the opera with the famous line, "La commedia è finita!" which means, "The comedy is finished!"

"Vesti la giubba", which translates to "put on the costume," is one of the most tragic songs in the opera, an aria sung by the main character Canio. It is about his lament that even though he is depressed and his wits and feelings feel twisted and torn, the show must still go on and the audience must still have their laughs.

The song begins with Canio singing, "Recitar! Mentre preso dal delirio,/ non so più quel che dico,/ e quel che faccio!" which means "To recite! While taken with delirium,/ I no longer know what it is that I say,/ or what it is that I am doing!" Canio opens this song with a declaration of his own insanity, stating that he barley even knows what it is he's saying and doing anymore. He is so consumed by  his grief that he has lost hold of his sanity. This statement could also be a foreshadowing by the composer, Leoncavallo, of events to come.

After that Canio continues, "Eppur è d'uopo, sforzati!/ Bah! sei tu forse un uom?/ Tu se' Pagliaccio!" meaning, "And yet it is necessary, force yourself!/ Bah! Can't you be a man?/ You are 'Pagliaccio'." In this section, even though he is depressed, delirious and can barely control himself, he still must force himself to get into costume and act for the sake of being a man, his reputation, and for the audience.

One of the most striking, heart-wrenching parts of the song is when he tells himself to laugh, "Ridi, Pagliaccio,/ sul tuo amore infranto!/ Ridi del duol, che t'avvelena il cor!" which means "Laugh, clown,/ for your love is broken!/ Laugh of the pain, that poisons your heart!" In these last few lines of the aria, he is trying to force himself to laugh through the pain he feels in his heart, and laugh at his own broken love.