Neapolitan by birth, Leoncavallo studied music in Naples and literature at Bologna, and seemed about to make a career as a librettist. His operatic ambitions found their only really successful result in Pagliacci, for which he wrote both words and music.
Operas
Pagliacci, a story of love and jealousy in a troupe of commedia dell'arte actors, has achieved a permanent place in operatic repertoire, often, in view of its relative brevity, coupled with Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. Leoncavallo's first opera, Chatterton, won no favour, while his version of La bohème was soon eclipsed by that of
