Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a Sicilian short story written by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called Cav/Pag double-bill with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.
Cavalleria rusticana is also the title of the 1907 opera by the composer Domenico Monleone based on the same source.
Cavalleria rusticana was the first opera that Mascagni wrote (although Pinotta only premiered in 1932 was written earlier) and remains the most well known of his 16 operas. (Apart from Cavalleria rusticana, only Iris and L'amico Fritz have remained in the standard repertory.) Its success has been phenomenal from its first performance in the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on May 17, 1890 until the present day. At the time of Mascagni's death in...
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