Pagliacci (Highlights)

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1977

Label: Unique Opera Records

on label:
PRIVATE RECORD NOT FOR SALE
1938 Richard Tauber production of Pagliacci sung in English

Pagliacci (U.S. release: A Clown Must Laugh) (1936)
A Trafalgar Production
Distributed by United Artists
Producer: Max Schach
Director: Karl Grune
Scenario: Monckton Hoffe, John Drinkwater, Roger Burford and Ernest Betts
Camera: Otto Kanturek
Musical Director and arranger: Hanns Eisler (after Leoncavallo)
English Lyrics: John Drinkwater
Conductor: Albert Coates (orchestra and chorus)
Filmed in Britain, mid-july to mid-september 1936
92 minutes; B&W/color
No U.S. copyright information
London premiere: 1936
U.S. premiere: Little Carnegie Theater, New York City, 11 Oct 1938

Cast: Richard Tauber (Canio Tonini); Steffi Duna (Nedda Tonini); Diana Napier (Trina); Arthur Margetson (Tonio); Esmond Knight (Silvio); Jerry Verno (Beppo); Gordon James (Leone); Harry Milton (Officer); Ivan Wilmot (Coachman) and John Traynor, Ron Finlay, Joe Roncoroni, Ambrose Day and Daley Cooper, Jr.

SIDE 1 (360A):

Prologue: *1 Tauber: A Word [Si puo?]

Act I: *2 Tauber and Chorus: Long live the merry king who gives us pleasure ... Silence! This even' at seven we play for your pleasure
3 Tauber: Such a game, believe me, friends
*4 Tauber and Chorus: From far away has rolled our caravan
*5 ?Tauber: Sleep, tis the daylight
6 Tauber: To act with my heart

SIDE 2 (360B)

Act II: 1 Tauber, [Duna], , [Verno], [Knight]: my husband, Punchinella ... O Columbine, be true to me ... No, Punchinello no more! ... to the end of the opera

notes:
Except for the Act II Commedia, Tauber sings virtually all of the music by himself in this film version of Pagliacci. Leoncavallo's music was arranged by Hanns Eisler (1898-1963), with English lyrics by poet John Drinkwater (1882-1937). In the finale, the decidedly non-operatic Nedda and Tonio have singing parts, presumably sung by Duna and Margretson. Silvio - one assumes Esmond Knight - is heard in the melee that ends the opera. Beppo (Jerry Verno) has only one sung/spoken line. The film had two notable color sequences (using the "Chemicolour" process) - one t the beginning, one at the end.

Taubers studio versions of these adapted excerpts (the Prologue, "on with the Motely", "Such a game", "Serenade" and "Sleep song"), conducted by G.Walter for British Parlophone between 30. April and 9. September, 1936 and issued originally as RO 20329 - RO 20331, credit Frederick Wetherly as the lyricist.

source: "More EJS: Discography of the Edward J. Smith Recordings" Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut - London

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