Vesti la giubba

Vesti la giubba (Put on the costume) is a famous tenor aria performed as part of the opera Pagliacci, written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo, and first performed in 1892. Vesti la giubba is the conclusion of the first act, when Canio discovers his wife's infidelity, but must nevertheless prepare for his performance as Pagliaccio the clown because 'the show must go on'.

The aria is often regarded as one of the most moving in the operatic repertoire of the time. The pain of Canio is portrayed in the aria and exemplifies the entire notion of the 'tragic clown': smiling on the outside but crying on the inside. This is still displayed today as the clown motif often features the painted on tear running down the cheek of the performer.

Since the opera's first performance in 1892, this aria in particular has ingrained itself well into popular culture, and has often been featured in many renditions, mentions, and spoofs over the years. The 1904 recording by Enrico Caruso was the first million-selling record in history.^[1]

Libretto

Media

	Vesti la giubba Performed by Enrico Caruso, recorded on March 17, 1907
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Adaptations

The 1971 album Spike Jones Is Murdering The Classics features a satirization of Vesti la giubba called "Pal-Yat-Chee"- the name intended as a play on the name of the opera. The song features vocals by Homer and Jethro as bumpkins who try to make sense of the opera and its main character.

Rock band Queen use part of the melody for the opening lines of the 1984 song It's a Hard Life from the album The Works.

In popular culture

• A recording by Mario del Monaco was used in the film Cookie (1989).
• It was briefly performed by the Joker in the episode "Strange Minds" in The Batman.
• The Hey Arnold episode "What's Opera, Arnold?" parodies the climax of this song. Harold plays Canio (though refers to himself as "Pagliacci, the Crying Clown"), and sings "Big ugly clown-o, just a big, ugly, clown-o" to the tune of said climax.
• The cereal company Kelloggs also used the melody of "Vesti la giubba" with a different more humorous lyric to sell the Rice Krispies brand.
• The Penguin attends a performance of Pagliacci with a lady friend in the Batman The Animated Series episode "Birds of a Feather" and sings along to "Vesti la giubba".
• Sideshow Bob performed the climax of this song in the Simpsons' episode "The Italian Bob".
• The song is played in the Spongebob Squarepants episode "The Two Faces Of Squidward" as "Handsome Squidward" is pushed out of the way of a falling shoe causing him to fall.
• Jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson recorded an arrangement of this piece just entitled "Pagliacci" on his 1974 album Primal Scream
• Features in the animated film Happy Feet (2006).
• Robert De Niro's character Al Capone weeps during a live performance of this song in the 1987 film The Untouchables.
• James Bond brings a public performance of the aria to an abrupt end in Moonraker when he knocks one of Drax's henchmen off a tall building, causing him to land on (and destroy) the piano.
• The song was the basis of one of Coca Cola's advertisements.^[2]
• The song is played over the end credits of the Seinfeld episode "The Opera", in which the characters attend a performance of the opera.
• The song features on the soundtrack for Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, on the classical music station Double Cleff FM.
• Queen's song "It's A Hard Life" the opening makes a reference to the aria.
• The song plays on all three cutscenes of Crazy 8's story on the PlayStation 2 game Twisted Metal: Black.
• The famous italian singer Mina recorded a pop version fo this aria in her 1988 double album Ridi pagliaccio Vol. 2
• In the Russian-French movie Burnt by the Sun, the character Mityai performs the climax of the song when he suddenly reappears at the country house.
• In the episode "The Dabba Don" of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, the prosecutor wears the clown costume of Pagliacci and sings the rousing last stanza of the aria to end the climax of the episode. This is an example of and a comment on the strong associations the aria has come to have with the depiction of Italian-American mobsters in popular culture.
• In the episode 8 season 17 of The Simpsons (The Italian Bob), The last two verses are sung by Tahiti Bob.

References

External links

• 25 versions of the aria