Ruggero Leoncavallo

Ruggero Leoncavallo was born in April 1857 in Italy and built a career writing operas and songs across decades. Pagliacci arrived in 1892 and became the work that wouldn't let go: it entered the standard repertoire and stayed there while everything else he touched struggled for air. He composed "Mattinata", which Enrico Caruso made widely known, and he wrote his own La bohème — but Puccini's version with the same title eclipsed it entirely. Leoncavallo kept working, kept producing, but the shadow never lifted. He died in August 1919, his catalog large and his legacy singular.