Leoncavallo: Life and Works is the first fully documented biography of the beloved and popular composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857-1919), whose credits include Pagliacci and the operatic works Chatterton, Der Roland von Berlin, Zazà, Maïa, Zingari, La bohème, and the incomplete trilogy Crepusculum. Author Konrad Dryden has amassed material from hundreds of unpublished letters and photographs, creating the most complete portrait of the composer to date. This book examines various facets of Leoncavallo's history: from his youth as the son of the Naples' judge who presided over the murder trial on which Pagliacci was based to his studies with the poet Giosuè Carducci, and from his sojourn in France as a café-chantant pianist to his appointment in Egypt as music instructor to the Khedive. Careful documentation and plot synopses of Leoncavallo's numerous works are provided and his two U.S. tours are discussed. The biography also sheds new light on Leoncavallo's colleagues and contemporaries, including composers Mahler, Massenet, Puccini, Verdi, and Mascagni; singers Caruso, Ruffo, Tetrazzini, and Sanderson; and historical personalities like Toscanini, Hugo, Carducci, Wilhelm II, and Queen Victoria. A foreword by Plácido Domingo, a photo spread featuring more than 25 photos, and an appendix offering the complete list of the composer's opus add to the bibliography and index, making this the ultimate reference on this important figure in music and opera history.

"...the first substantial study of the composer in English...[the author] can be congratulated in assembling so much new information." - BBC Music Magazine, August 2007

"This is ideal for anyone looking for in-depth research material on this little-known composer. Highly recommended." - CHOICE, October 2007, Vol. 45, No. 2

"Best known as the composer of Pagliacci , Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) created many other operatic works, including Chatterton , Der Roland von Berlin , and La bohème. Based on extensive archival research conducted by the author, this critical biography attempts to untangle and organize the facts of Leoncavallo's life while offering a relatively complete analysis of his works. Dryden teaches music at the University of Maryland University College-Europe." - Reference and Research Book News, May 2007

"Because of Dryden, he [Leoncavallo] has finally been accorded a memorial entirely unlike himself: that is, unassuming, focused, disciplined, and perilously near to perfection. The preface, by no less a performer than Plácido Domingo, merely confirms the whole project's quality. It is impossible to imagine any subsequent book on leoncavallo doing more than adding a handful of grace notes, and perhaps the very occasional cadenza, to Dryden's quietly heroic art." - The New Criterion, June 2008

"Real-life events partially inspired Ruggiero Leoncavallo's 1892 verismo shocker to make it one of the most popular operas ever written. The work also turned its composer into a "one-hit wonder." Leoncavallo, deeply troubled and insecure for most of his career, wrote operas to inspire both admiration and revulsion. When you add the chaotic state of Leoncavallo's correspondence, the challenges facing any writer of a definitive biography become apparent. Fortunately, Dryden's illuminating study succeeds despite these odds....Dryden's book proves a thorough, well-documented resource on a gifted composer tormented by the early success he was never able to duplicate. Dryden's painstaking detective work provides a solid foundation for future research. Simply put, every scholar, singer, conductor, and opera fan who admires Leoncavallo and wants to learn more about his career and personality will want to read this book. Highly recommended." - The Opera Journal