PIETRO MASCAGNI (1863-1945) Cavaleria Rusticana Semi-staged opera Libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti First IPO Performance ca. 80 mins. Pietro Mascagni wrote the opera "Cavalleria Rusticana" ("Rustic Chivalry") based on a story and play by Giovanni Verga, which tells the story of simple people in a Sicilian village on Easter day. The young villager Turiddu returns home after military service and learns that his former fiancée, Lola, has married the wagon driver Alfio in the meantime. Turiddu pursues Santuzza, who is in love with him, and starts a relationship with her, but continues meeting Lola behind her husband's back. When Santuzza discovers the affair, she confronts Turiddu outside the church, but he ignores her. In a moment of jealousy, she reveals Turiddu and Lola’s affair to Alfio. Santuzza soon realizes the bitter mistake she made and rushes to tell Turiddu’s mother, Lucia, who has been a mother figure to her, but it’s too late. After a confrontation, Turiddu challenges Alfio to a duel. He says goodbye to his mother and asks her to look after Santuzza in case he loses. The concerned women wait to hear the results of the duel, until they hear a cry revealing that Turiddu was killed. Mascagni watched Verga’s play and immediately felt that the story could form a good basis for an opera. While working on another opera, he heard about a competition for writing short operas hosted by the Roman publishing house Sonzogno and decided, with Puccini’s encouragement, to move forward with the work on a short opera. Mascagni was unsure about the quality of the opera, and only thanks to his wife’s resourcefulness did the opera enter the competition at the last moment. The opera won the competition, became a sensation, and was immediately performed across Europe and the world. Cavalleria Rusticana (1890) is considered by many as the first verismo opera, although some argue that the first verismo opera is actually Bizet's Carmen (1875) or even Verdi's La Traviata (1853), two operas centered on women who challenge the social conventions that confine them, with their plots focusing on 'ordinary' people of the time. Verismo is an artistic movement whose name is derived from the Italian word verità, meaning "truth." Italian verismo is a development of French naturalism, which focused on writing about ordinary people and everyday life, as opposed to grand, mythical themes and philosophical questions. Émile Zola, one of the leaders of the movement in France, defined it this way: "The goal is no longer to invent complicated stories or extraordinary dramatic events to amaze the reader; the goal is to document human events. Every ordinary person is an interesting enough hero — if we examine them closely, we will certainly find within them a human drama dealing with emotions and passions." This approach stands in the center of the versimo musical expression. As stories like these began to take central stage in operas, a musical reaction started, pushing composers toward a new style of
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