Monday, September 23, 2013

Just Put on the Costume you Clown


Date: Monday, September 16th, 2013 Day 14

Today's Affirmation: "I am surrounded by beauty."

Area to improve: Appreciating Beauty

Specific Change: Enjoy something beautiful.


So I gotta move my Enjoy Something beautiful day to a day when the museums aren't closed!

Every gallery I wanted to see was closed and I wasn't feeling going to a jazz club by myself. So I ended up listening to an opera that I love called Pagliacci.

It is a story about a traveling performance group of clowns and their unfunny lives. The opera is about betrayal, affairs, backstabbing, front stabbing (murder), and how life and art imitate each other so closely that it is difficult for us to know when one ends and another begins.

Plot Synopsis

Canio discovers that his wife, Nedda is cheating on him with a person in town named Silvio. Tonio, another clown who wants to be with Nedda, eggs on Canio to take revenge for her betrayal. Canio knows that the show must go on and sings the famous aria Vesti la Giubba which is about how he is a clown and no one cares what he is going through. He sole job is to laugh and make others laugh.

In the Second Act the traveling troupe performs a piece about a clown coming home and finds out that his wife is cheating on him (sounds familiar?). The audience believes this is all part of the show and can't believe how real their performance is. As Nedda refuses to give up Silvio , her lover, Canio, her husband threatens her and chases her with a knife. After Canio kills his wife he then stabs Silvio as well and Tonio, the one who brought this whole situation to its climax, says, "La Comedia e finita!" And the audience believes all this was part of the show.


The comedy is over or that's all folks!

It has such a great story and the music is incredible. The version I found on YouTube was a Franco Zefferelli movie that starred Placido Domingo and Teresa Strata. The movie was really good but I recommend the live performance of Calvaliera Rustica and Pagliacci which both starred Placido Domingo. He performed two different operas one right after the other.

I will put the link here for the YouTube video as well a the link to the DVD.

Youtube:                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSURBaT3XF4

DVD :                       http://www.amazon.com/Mascagni-Cavalleria-Rusticana-Leoncavallo-Metropolitan/dp/B00579EK50/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1379934711&sr=8-2&keywords=pagliacci

Vesti la Giubba is such a powerful song. When sung with deep emotion many people can be on the verge to tears even while not knowing what the song is about. It has so much raw human emotion it is no wonder many people have heard it and it is used in pop culture. Truly a beautiful experience listening to this aria!




Keep enjoying something or someone Beautiful!



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