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• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

1840–1922, Italian Librettist Verga came relatively late to serious writing but his contribution, when it came, was forceful. In 1884, he had a volume of short stories published of which one was entitled Cavalleria rusticana. The story was expanded into a play shortly afterwards and it was this version that was adapted for Mascagni’s eponymous opera. Verga’s ...

• Major Operas
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

‘Rustic Chivalry’ Composed: 1888 Premiered: 1890, Rome Libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci after Giovanni Verga’s play Early on Easter Day, Turiddu is heard offstage serenading Lola. The villagers start arriving for church. Santuzza stops Mamma Lucia, Turiddu’s mother, and asks where she may find him. He is supposed to have gone to another village to ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

Opera Major Operas | The Mikado by Arthur Sullivan | Turn of the Century Major Operas | The Gondoliers by Arthur Sullivan | Turn of the Century ​Personalities | Giovanni Verga | Turn of the Century | Opera Techniques | Operetta | Turn of the Century | Opera ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

work except when it completely suited him. Ricordi had several potential subjects lined up for the new toast of Italy: a scenario along the lines of Cavalleria rusticana with Giovanni Verga and several ideas with Luigi Illica, including the germs of Tosca. Illica had been involved in Manon Lescaut, but his relationship with Puccini was not an easy one. ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(Pe-a’-tro Mas-kan’-ye) 1863–1945 Italian composer The son of a baker, Mascagni studied law before becoming a conductor and piano teacher. In 1890, while a conductor in Cerignola, he shot into the limelight with his prize-winning one-act opera Cavalleria rusticana which, at its legendary premiere at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, received an unprecedented 60 curtain calls. Based ...

• Opera
• Turn of the Century

the nineteenth century seized upon Zola’s beliefs as a potent dramatic source. The style they developed came to be known as verismo and was exemplified by writers such as Giovanni Verga and Luigi Capuana. The characteristically veristic traits of strong local colour, down-to-earth language and – to the audiences – familiar and often personally resonant plots, made the style ...

• Styles & Forms
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

Use of Leitmotif In terms of subject matter, the strongest trend was for exotic locations. The counter-fashion for strong local colour, begun by the veristic writings of Giovanni Verga and then Mascagni and Leoncavallo, provided a welcome sideline but La fanciulla del West (1910), Madama Butterfly (1904), Salome (1905), Elektra (1909) and even Der Rosenkavalier (1911) testify to ...

• Techniques
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

the essential idea remained an attractive one. The Italian veristi tended to concentrate their work on the lower social classes. The language used is always that of the subject – Verga, for example, obsessively collected short phrases and idioms that he would incorporate into his work. The result is that we hear the words of the subjects themselves, ...

• Performance
• Classical
• Contemporary Classical

The twentieth century has seen a wealth of special effects employed in music, in much the same way as they are used in film, beginning with the intonarumori (‘noise-intoners’) invented by Luigi Russolo. A football rattle (called a ‘bird scare’ by the composer) was required by Havergal Brian (1876–1972) for his Gothic Symphony No. 1 (1927). The sound of ...