Act! While I’m going mad, I don’t know what I’m saying anymore,
Or what I’m doing!
Yet I must, force yourself!
You are Pagliaccio!
Put on the jacket,
And the powdered face.
The people pay, and they want to laugh here.
And if the harlequin flies to you Colombina,
Laugh, Pagliaccio, and everyone will applaud!
Transform the spasms and the crying into jokes
The hiccups and the pain into a smirk, Ah!
Laugh, Pagliaccio,
At your shattered love!
Laugh at the sorrow that poisons your heart!
Placido Domingo as Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.
Metropolitan Opera, 1978. Conductor: James Levine.
