Photograph showing head and shoulders portrait of the composer, Ruggiero Leoncavallo facing three-quarters right. Vignette, signed and dated by the composer. Queen Victoria had always enjoyed Italian opera, and she was a great admirer of the music of Ruggiero Leoncavallo. She met him on two occasions in 1899, while she was on a visit to Nice. Leoncavallo was to have conducted his music at an opera concert in the Waterloo Gallery at Windsor Castle on 4 July 1899, but he was ill and unable to do so. Nevertheless, Pagliacci was performed, conducted by Mancinelli, and the Queen considered it 'eminently dramatic & very tragic & full of passion'.