A Study On The Musical And Dramatic Expression Of Sorrow And Joy In The Opera Pagliacci

As one of the two pioneering works of Italian verismo opera,Leoncavallo’s two-act opera“Pagliacci” occupies a place in the treasure house of western classical opera.The opera depicts the tragic life of Italian folk artists at the end of the 19 th century and also arouses people ’s profound thinking about the relationship between drama and reality.The intense conflict of sorrow and joy in the opera and the exquisite structure of “play-within-play” are impressive.This paper focuses on the emotional expression of sorrow and joy in the opera “Pagliacci”.The full text is divided into four chapters,the first chapter briefly sorts out the representative western drama aesthetics in the 19 th century to clarify the aesthetic implications of " sorrow " and " joy " when the opera " Pagliacci " was born.The second chapter takes the opera title “Pagliacci”as the starting point,through the introduction and analysis of the clown image in the history of western art and Bakhtin ’s carnival theory,explains the dramatic connotation of the clown image in the west,and on this basis,analyzes the personality characteristics of the opera hero Canio.The third chapter analyzes the music of the opera " Pagliacci ",and deeply analyzes the musical expression of sorrow and joy in the opera from six aspects :the penetration of the tragic music theme,the presentation of the psychological movements of the characters in the aria,the support of the orchestra for Tonio’s actions,the rendering of the carnival atmosphere by the chorus,the degradation of love by the duet in the "play-within-play" and the use of the dance music in the "play-within-play".The fourth chapter first introduces and analyzes the development process of "play-within-play" and the aesthetic characteristics of the structure of "play-within-play" in the history of western drama,and then focuses on the opera " Pagliacci " to explore how the composer successfully pushes the tragic conflict of the whole drama to the peak and creates an impressive opera climax through the ingenious use of " play-within-play ".