Life and art are invariably intertwined, but seldom as closely as in the opera "Pagliacci" (Clowns). Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera about fatal jealousies in a traveling troupe of actors.

But before Pagliacci, it was the English clown Joseph Grimaldi who most often starred in the story. He rose to prominence in the early 1800s, and throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the tale ...

“Pagliacci” sneaks up on you. It’s made with as much savvy as inspiration, as if Leoncavallo were setting a trap for his audience. It begins, of course, with Tonio, a clown in a c… ...

Despite all this, clowns were typically viewed in a positive light for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, even though Leoncavallo's aforementioned 1892 opera, Pagliacci, told the story of a ...