Act I. The edge of the village of Montalto, Calabria. People are

celebrating the Feast of the Assumption. In the background is the tent of the strolling players. These players, _Canio_, _Nedda_, _Tonio_, and _Beppe_, in the costume of their characters in the play they are to enact, are parading through the village.

The opening chorus, "Son qua" (They're here), proclaims the innocent joy with which the village hails the arrival of the players. The beating of a drum, the blare of a trumpet are heard. The players, having finished their parade through the village, are returning to their tent. _Beppe_, in his _Harlequin_ costume, enters leading a donkey drawing a gaudily painted cart, in which _Nedda_ is reclining. Behind her, in his _Pagliaccio_ costume, is _Canio_, beating the big drum and blowing the trumpet. _Tonio_, dressed as _Taddeo_, the clown, brings up the rear. The scene is full of life and gayety.

Men, women, and boys, singing sometimes in separate groups, sometimes together, form the chorus. The rising inflection in their oft-repeated greeting to _Canio_ as "il principe sei dei Pagliacci" (the prince of Pagliaccios), adds materially to the lilt of joy in their greeting to the players whose coming performance they evidently regard as the climax to the festival.

_Canio_ addresses the crowd. At seven o'clock the play will begin. They will witness the troubles of poor _Pagliaccio_, and the vengeance he wreaked on the _Clown_, a treacherous fellow. 'Twill be a strange combination of love and of hate.

Again the crowd acclaims its joy at the prospect of seeing the players on the stage behind the flaps of the tent.

_Tonio_ comes forward to help _Nedda_ out of the cart. _Canio_ boxes his ears, and lifts _Nedda_ down himself. _Tonio_, jeered at by the women and boys, angrily shakes his fists at the youngsters, and goes off muttering that _Canio_ will have to pay high for what he has done. _Beppe_ leads off the donkey with the cart, comes back, and throws down his whip in front of the tent. A villager asks _Canio_ to drink at the tavern. _Beppe_ joins them. _Canio_ calls to _Tonio_. Is he coming with them? _Tonio_ replies that he must stay behind to groom the donkey. A villager suggests that _Tonio_ is remaining in order to make love to _Nedda_. _Canio_ takes the intended humour of this sally rather grimly. He says that in the play, when he interferes with _Tonio's_ love-making, he lays himself open to a beating. But in real life--let any one, who would try to rob him of _Nedda's_ love, beware. The emphasis with which he speaks causes comment.

"What can he mean?" asks _Nedda_ in an aside.

"Surely you don't suspect her?" question the villagers of _Canio_.

Of course not, protests _Canio_, and kisses _Nedda_ on the forehead.

Just then the bagpipers from a neighbouring village are heard approaching. The musicians, followed by the people of their village, arrive to join in the festival. All are made welcome, and the villagers, save a few who are waiting for _Canio_ and _Beppe_, go off down the road toward the village. The church bells ring. The villagers sing the pretty chorus, "Din, don--suona vespero" (Ding, dong--the vespers bell). _Canio_ nods good-bye to _Nedda_. He and _Beppe_ go toward the village.

_Nedda_ is alone. _Canio's_ words and manner worry her. "How fierce he looked and watched me!--Heavens, if he should suspect me!" But the birds are singing, the birds, whose voices her mother understood. Her thoughts go back to her childhood. She sings, "Oh! che volo d'augelli" (Ah, ye beautiful song-birds), which leads up to her vivacious _ballatella_, "Stridono lassù, liberamente" (Forever flying through the boundless sky).

_Tonio_ comes on from behind the theatre. He makes violent love to _Nedda_. The more passionately the clown pleads, the more she mocks him, and the more angry he grows. He seeks forcibly to grasp and kiss her. She backs away from him. Spying the whip where _Beppe_ threw it down, she seizes it, and with it strikes _Tonio_ across the face. Infuriated, he threatens, as he leaves her, that he will yet be avenged on her.

A man leans over the wall. He calls in a low voice, "Nedda!"

"Silvio!" she cries. "At this hour ... what madness!"

He assures her that it is safe for them to meet. He has just left _Canio_ drinking at the tavern. She cautions him that, if he had been a few moments earlier, his presence would have been discovered by _Tonio_. He laughs at the suggestion of danger from a clown.

_Silvio_ has come to secure the promise of the woman he loves, and who has pledged her love to him, that she will run away with him from her husband after the performance that night. She does not consent at once, not because of any moral scruples, but because she is afraid. After a little persuasion, however, she yields. The scene reaches its climax in an impassioned love duet, "E allor perchè, di', tu m'hai stregato" (Why hast thou taught me Love's magic story). The lovers prepare to separate, but agree not to do so until after the play, when they are to meet and elope.

The jealous and vengeful _Tonio_ has overheard them, and has run to the tavern to bring back _Canio_. He comes just in time to hear _Nedda_ call after _Silvio_, who has climbed the wall, "Tonight, love, and forever I am thine."

_Canio_, with drawn dagger, makes a rush to overtake and slay the man, who was with his wife. _Nedda_ places herself between him and the wall, but he thrusts her violently aside, leaps the wall, and starts in pursuit. "May Heaven protect him now," prays _Nedda_ for her lover, while _Tonio_ chuckles.

The fugitive has been too swift for _Canio_. The latter returns.

"His name!" he demands of _Nedda_, for he does not know who her lover is. _Nedda_ refuses to give it. _Silvio_ is safe! What matter what happens to her. _Canio_ rushes at her to kill her. _Tonio_ and _Beppe_ restrain him. _Tonio_ whispers to him to wait. _Nedda's_ lover surely will be at the play. A look, or gesture from her will betray him. Then _Canio_ can wreak vengeance. _Canio_ thinks well of _Tonio's_ ruse. _Nedda_ escapes into the theatre.

It is time to prepare for the performance. _Beppe_ and _Tonio_ retire to do so.

_Canio's_ grief over his betrayal by _Nedda_ finds expression in one of the most famous numbers in modern Italian opera, "Vesti la giubba" (Now don the motley), with its tragic "Ridi, Pagliaccio" (Laugh thou, Pagliaccio), as _Canio_ goes toward the tent, and enters it. It is the old and ever effective story of the buffoon who must laugh, and make others laugh, while his heart is breaking.

[Music]