Editing Pagliacci (section)

==Origin and disputes==
Leoncavallo was a little-known composer when [[Pietro Mascagni]]'s ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]'' premiered around 1890. After seeing Mascagni's success, Leoncavallo decided to write an opera in response: one act composed in the [[verismo]] style.

Leoncavallo based the story of ''Pagliacci'' on an incident from his childhood:<ref name="Leoncavallo">{{cite journal|jstor=25119331|last=Leoncavallo|first=R.|title=How I Wrote ''Pagliacci''|journal=[[North American Review]]|volume=175|issue=552|pages=652–654|date=November 1902}}</ref> the 1865 murder of a Leoncavallo family servant, Gaetano Scavello, killed by Gaetano D'Alessandro, with brother Luigi acting as accomplice. The incident stemmed from a series of perceived romantic entanglements involving Scavello, Luigi D'Alessandro, and a village girl with whom both men were infatuated.{{sfn|Dryden|2007|p=5}} Leoncavallo's father, a judge, presided as magistrate over the criminal investigation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ardoin |first1=John |title=Apropos ''Wozzeck'' |journal=[[The Opera Quarterly]]|year=1985|volume=3 |issue=3 |page=68 |doi=10.1093/oq/3.3.68}}</ref>

Leoncavallo originally titled his story ''Il pagliaccio'' (''The Clown''). The baritone [[Victor Maurel]], who was cast as the first Tonio, requested that Leoncavallo change the title from the singular ''Il pagliaccio'' to the plural ''I Pagliacci'', to broaden dramatic interest from Canio alone to include Tonio (his own role).{{sfn|Dryden|2007|p=37}}

The French author [[Catulle Mendès]] sued Leoncavallo for [[plagiarism]] after learning of the plot of Leoncavallo's libretto from an 1894 French translation. Mendès thought it resembled his 1887 play ''[[La Femme de Tabarin]]'' ("Tabarin's Wife"), which was structured as a play-within-the-play and featured a clown murdering his wife. Leoncavallo pleaded ignorance of Mendès's play.<ref name="Leoncavallo" /> Later, there were counter-accusations that Mendès's play resembled Don [[Manuel Tamayo y Baus]]'s ''Un Drama Nuevo'' (1867). Mendès dropped his lawsuit. Scholar [[Matteo Sansone (musicologist)|Matteo Sansone]] has suggested that Leoncavallo had ample opportunity to be exposed to new French art and musical works while living in Paris from 1882 to 1888, including potentially Mendès's play, another version of ''La femme de Tabarin'' by Paul Ferrier, and ''Tabarin'', an opera composed by [[Émile Pessard]] that was based on Ferrier's play.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sansone|first=Matteo|title=The 'Verismo' of Ruggero Leoncavallo: A Source Study of ''Pagliacci''|journal=[[Music & Letters]]|volume=70|issue=3|pages=342–362|year=1989|doi=10.1093/ml/70.3.342}}</ref>