Ruggiero Leoncavallo, both composer and librettist, based Pagliacci on real-life events he recalled from childhood. From these he fashioned a vivid musical play with intense passions build in the lives of a troupe of commedia dell'arte players until they explode into a horrifying double murder. From the first, audiences have loved Pagliacci and it remains today one of the most enduringly popular of all operas. The chorus 'I Zampognari', also known as the Bell Chorus, is sung at the end of the first scene.