OPERA MASCAGNI The Italian Opera Company of Chicago

After the risorgimento resulted in the foundation of the free and united state of Italy in 1861, Italian artistic production, especially in the field of opera, dropped off precipitously. To be sure, there were occasionally new operas being composed by composers who had new approaches to their art, like Arrigo Boito, whose Mefistofele (1868) was hooted off the La Scala stage at its first performance. (It was somewhat redeemed in a considerably shortened version with an outstanding cast of singers in Bologna in 1875, but it is hardly one of the best examples of Italian opera!) Holding a much firmer place in the standard repertoire is Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda (1876), which anticipates Puccini (as well it might, given that Ponchielli was Puccini's composition teacher at the Milan Conservatory). After Italian independence only Giuseppe Verdi consistently composed Italian operas that were celebrated worldwide and even his contributions were not numerous. (In the 1860s he composed La forza del destino, the revision of Macbeth and Don Carlo; in the 1870s, Aida and the Requiem; in the 1880s, Otello and the revisions of Simon Boccanegra, Don Carlo and La forza; and in the 1890s, Falstaff and the Stabat Mater.) Compared to the first part of the ottocento, the post-revolutionary period contained very little new Italian opera indeed.

And then, like a tidal wave, the swan song of Italian opera swept through the theaters of the Western world, and this tsunami of music drama was called verismo. The Italian word "verismo" from the Latin verite, which means "truth," originated with a literary tradition that had its roots in the so-called Scapigliatura ("disheveled") movement of the 1860s. The members of this mainly unproductive collection of malcontents did a lot of talking about what Italian art should be, but only two of the musical scapigliati, conductor Franco Faccio (1840-1891), and composer/librettist Arrigo Boito, ever really did anything of note. In the meantime, Verdi kept producing masterpieces of Italian opera and remained the world's dominant musician. Ironically, Faccio, who conducted the first Italian performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, achieved his greatest recognition by conducting the La Scala premiere of Verdi's Aida (1872) and the first Otello (1887), which was composed to a libretto by Boito.

Sicilian writer Giovanni Verga (1840-1922) came into literary prominence with his I malavoglia (1881), a novel about poor Sicilian fishermen. It was Verga who provided the subject that would launch verismo opera, with his play, Cavalleria rusticana (1884). If it had not been for this play, Pietro Mascagni might have never been heard of, other than his youthful connection to Puccini. Born in Livorno, Mascagni studied music despite his father's opposition, and was talented enough to be accepted by the famous Milan Conservatory in 1881. It was around this time that he roomed with Puccini for a while. Mascagni lacked the discipline required to succeed at the Conservatory, so he dropped out of school and went on the road as a conductor of traveling opera companies. In the late 1880s,	Franco Faccio	Giovanni Verga
Mascagni settled in Cerignola, Apulia and seemed consigned to obscurity, making his living teaching and directing the local filarmonici.

Edoardo Sonzogno

Mascagni with Targioni-Tozzetti and Menasci

Inspired by Verga, Mascagni decided to enter the 1889 one-act opera contest of Edoardo Sonzogno (1836-1920), which had been established by the publisher in 1883 as a means to discover talent that he could use in his ongoing effort to compete with Ricordi.

Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, with a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, won the contest hands down and, when the opera was premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on May 17, 1890, the piece was an incredible success and the composer had become an international celebrity. Not since the 1842 premiere of Verdi's Nabucco had there been a new opera

of such significance and influence, mainly because the music of Cavalleria rusticana was extremely dramatic and genuinely fresh.

Umberto Giordano	Riccardo Zandonai	Soon Mascagni had a number of imitators who composed operas that embodied both the musical style and the dramatic approach of Cavalleria. Among these were Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano (1867-1948) and Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944). Puccini himself almost went totally in Mascagni's direction, going so far as to hold serious discussions with Verga about another of his verismo plays, La Lupa. Although Puccini decided not to use this play as a subject, it is fair to say that all his operas, from Manon Lescaut on, unmistakably reflected the basic sound of Cavalleria rusticana. Especially with Puccini, we find a problem with the term "verismo." Like the term "Bel Canto," it has multiple meanings. Because Puccini's music "sounds" something like Mascagni's, he is often called a verismo composer. The music of the verismo period was uniquely Italian, yet had universal appeal. But the most peculiar aspect of a true
verismo opera was the drama, with its simple focus on the murderous result of sexual jealousy and its cast of common folk. As far back in time as Greek tragedy, serious drama was concerned with the actions and passions of noble characters, and this is certainly true of traditional opera. But verismo opera changed all that. Actually, the forerunner to the Italian potboilers was Georges Bizet's magnificent Carmen (1875). This opera also features common characters and a murder borne of jealous rage. But its music is far more elegant - and traditional - than the constant, razor-sharp emotionalism of versimo opera (although, not coincidentally, the Italian publisher of Carmen was none other than Edoardo Sonzogno). Note that only one of Puccini's operas, Il tabarro, dramatically agrees with the true verismo format.

As for Mascagni, he composed a number of new operas, as did other composers who adopted the so-called verismo style. But all of Mascagni's operas except Cavalleria rusticana and all those of the other "verists," save one (Leoncavallo's Pagliacci), have all dropped from the standard repertoire. Mascagni scored several successes for his efforts, especially as he was sponsored by the Mussolini-led Fascist government. But he never again even came close to the level of artistry he showed in Cavalleria, which is undeniably a masterpiece of Italian opera. As the years passed it became clear to Mascagni that he would never recapture the brilliance of his great first opera, and he died an embittered man shortly after the end of World War II.	Benito Mussolini	Pietro Mascagni
Back to Top