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.