Get Your Free Audiobook

Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.
Leoncavallo: Pagliacci cover art

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci

Written by: Thomson Smillie
Narrated by: David Timson
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹211.00

Buy Now for ₹211.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.

Publisher's Summary

Pagliacci may be the most completely compelling short opera in the repertory and owes much of its impact to a brilliant story based, it is said, on true life and told through the device of a play-within-a-play. The action is set in Calabria in the deep south of Italy where the jealousies and illicit passions of a troupe of strolling actors precisely intersect with the play they are performing - to both touching and tragic effect. Leoncavallo was his own librettist, and his literary skills, allied to great melodic creativity, guarantee that in its two short acts Pagliacci - ‘Clowns’ - delivers an overwhelming emotional experience.

©2004 Naxos AudioBooks (P)2004 Naxos AudioBooks

Pagliacci, which means Clown, is composer and librettist Leoncavallo's tragic short opera, written in the late 1800's. If you don't know the opera already, you will be entranced by the first notes of the tenor aria, which opens the audiobook. The music is romantic and heart-wrenching, and narrator David Timson quickly pulls listeners into details of the opera's setting, music, and history. He's narrating the work of expert music historian Thomas Smillie, who is unparalleled in his knowledge of opera. Timson's voice gives the educational book a fun, lighthearted appeal. Listener get to know each character in the opera intimately, enriching their experience of the music tenfold. Opera lovers and those new to the genre will be equally satisfied with this thorough introduction to Pagliacci.

What listeners say about Leoncavallo: Pagliacci

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.