Pagliacci (Italian pronunciation: [paʎˈʎattʃi] clowns) is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It is the only Leoncavallo opera that is still widely staged.Pagliacci premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini (who did not like it), with Adelina Stehle as Nedda, Fiorello Giraud as Canio, Victor Maurel as Tonio, and Mario Ancona as Silvio. Nellie Melba played Nedda in London in 1892, soon after its Italian premiere, and was given in New York on 15 June 1893. The Metropolitan Opera's staging on 22 December of that year was the first time that it appeared along with Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana.