Opera no 117
Leoncavallo: Zaza
Soloists
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Maurizio Benini
In talking about Opera no 116 (la Gioconda) I mentioned that Ponchielli was very much a one-work composer. The two most famous operas in that category must be Cav and Pag and I will look at their composers next in this project.
Leoncavallo will forever be associated with Pagliacci but that was by no means his only opera. Last year I discussed his version of La Boheme https://andrew365newpieces.blogspot.com/search/label/Leoncavallo and found it an uneven work where the lighter moments were probably more effective than the melodrama. That is the case here as well I think. The first act of this opera takes place backstage during a performance and it was full of colour and good humour. The mood gradually darkened through the peice and perhaps the music became a little more clichéd, though it was undoubtedly highly effective. I certainly enjoyed listening to this opera and wondered whether it could still command the stage - it has been revived more than once recently. It certainly shows that Leoncavallo was more than a one-trick pony.
