Cavalleria rusticana di pietro mascagni biography

It was one of the tragedies of Mascagni’s career that although he wrote and produced 15 other operas, none came close to matching the spectacular success of Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry).

Mascagni (1863-1945), born in Livorno, Italy, composed two operas prior to Cavalleria Rusticana – Pinotta in 1880 and Guglielmo Ratcliff in 1885. After his dismissal from the Milan Conservatory in 1884 for his lack of application, he endured six years of poverty and obscurity touring as a conductor, then teaching and conducting in Cerignola, Puglia.

Here, in 1889, he heard of a competition sponsored by the music publisher Sonzogno offering a prize for the best one-act opera to be submitted.

Mascagni took a story – a passionate love tragedy that takes place on Easter morning – by the Sicilian writer Giovanni Verga, which the author had already adapted into a play for the actress Eleonora Duse and which Mascagni had