Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci
Cavalleria Rusticana is a one-act melodrama by Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) to a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci. It was premiered at Teatro Costanzi, Rome on May 17, 1890.
Few operas have enjoyed such instantaneous success, or exerted such an impact on the operatic world, as Cavalleria Rusticana. One of three winners in a contest for one-act operas sponsored by the Italian music publisher Sonzogno, it was Mascagni’s first produced opera. The ecstatic response of the first-night audience quickly inspired productions in other major opera houses all around the world. A year after its Rome premiere, Cavalleria Rusticana was an international success, and its young composer the toast of the musical world.
Cavalleria Rusticana is a temptuous drama of adultery and revenge set in a remote Sicilian village on Easter day. Its earthy passions, bold confrontational scenes and richly melodic score set a fashion for the so-called verismo opera that would endure for more than a decade. Ultimately Mascagni’s most successful opera, it is still a great repertoire favourite, almost always double-billed with Leoncavallos’s Pagliacci (as in this evening).
Pagliacci is an music drama in two acts by Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1858-1919) to a libretto by the composer himself. It was premiered at Teatro dal Verme, Milan on May 21, 1892.
In Pagliacci, intense passions build in the lives of a troupe of commedia dell’arte players until they explode in mid-performance into a horrifying double murder. This kind of shocking scene was a hallmark of the so-called verismo, the Italian school of operatic realism that first soared to popularity in the 1890’s.
Leoncavallo based his opera Pagliacci on real-life events he recalled from childhood. From these he fashioned a vivid musical play within a play that begins innocently enough as a simple farce involving the traditional characters of Harlequin, Columbine, and Clown, but suddenly becomes an ominous series of threatening encounters that end in a tragedy.
From the very first performance, audiences have loved Pagliacci. It remains one of the most enduringly popular of all operas.
Date: Saturday 24th April 2010
Time: 19:30
Venue: Teatru tal-Opra Aurora, Victoria, Gozo
Tickets: €50 and €40
Reservations:
Teatru tal-Opra Aurora, Republic Street, Victoria, Gozo - Tel: 00356 2155 9452
Rain Production Entertainment, 103, St. Lawrence Street, Vittoriosa - Tel: 00356 2704 1200, 00356 9905 3736
