WMG / Pagliacci

Nedda is Romani

Her initial costume is described as being gypsy-like in the libretto's stage directions. Later, we learn that she was a Street Urchin whom Canio took in, and in her Act I aria she mentions that her mother was a fortune teller. Canio also says that he gave her a name – if she was old enough when her mother died to still remember her, then she was old enough to have a name then, so it makes sense to assume she originally had a Romani name which Canio changed to the Italian "Nedda." Her belonging to such a scorned minority group, whose women in particular are stereotyped as alluring yet untamable "loose women", would definitely add a layer to Canio and Tonio's Madonna-Whore Complex toward her.