Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer and librettist of the verismo school, born in Naples and raised partly in Calabria. After periods working in Cairo and Paris, he settled in Milan from 1888, where he composed his enduring masterpiece Pagliacci (1892); his other operas, including La bohème (1897) and Zazà, achieved far less lasting success. He died in Montecatini Terme in 1919 at the age of 62.

Pagliacci remains one of the most frequently performed operas in the standard repertoire, often paired in performance with Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana as the twin pillars of Italian verismo. Though the rest of his output has largely faded from the stage, his aria “Vesti la giubba” and the song “Mattinata,” popularized by Enrico Caruso, remain widely known, securing Leoncavallo a lasting place in operatic history.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruggero_Leoncavallo