The New School
Pietro Mascagni (Cavalleria Rusticana, 1890), Ruggero Leoncavallo (Pagliacci, 1892), Umberto Giordano (Andrea Chenier, 1896) and Giacomo Puccini (Tosca, 1900) - contemporaries and friends - united in reaction to the "old school" of Verdian opera - winning varying shares of fame. Links were close; Mascagni based Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Honour) on the play of the same name by the Sicilian Giovanni Verga (1840-1922), Pag, equally gritty verismo, was written in reaction to Cav and is set in the neighbouring Calabria - both at the time fiercely conservative tribalist regions of Italy "land of rustic peasants unyielding on points of honour" - lands lending themselves to such stories of jealousy revenge and murder. Tosca and the earlier less sophisticated Chenier shared the same librettist Luigi Illica, no doubt explaining the similarities of plot and theme. Puccini and Leoncavallo fell out when each discovered the other was writing a La Boheme (another sordid verist story). Have a look at Nigel Simeone explaining opera verismo and the rise of realism (and decline of romanticism) in European art forms.
Cav and Pag were credited with introducing verismo to opera - but what about Bizet's Carmen (1875)? They were crucial in changing the world of opera, maybe forever. Verismo "becomes the expression of a “slice of life” far removed from the noble subjects provided by history, mythology and tragedy. Singing becomes the way to reveal all the torment of passion in a sort of “natural” lyric madness whose outburst will have the power of “lived” emotion."
Again, "Opera needed to be reinvented after Verdi’s unshared reign, and Wagner’s crushing presence. Opera abandoned the places of power and the symbolic world of mythology to pursue the rough paths of peasant life." (from Catherine Duault - read her fascinating essay).
Our Production
The great director Franco Zefferelli brought Cav and Pag to La Scala in Milan in 1981, with Placido Domingo in both leading roles. Subsequently he made movies of both. His Cav (1984) is set in the Sicilian hill town of Vizzini (home of Verga), and uses many locals as extras. Turiddu, the male lead, is still Domingo (tenor). Santuzzi (soprano) whom he seduced and abandoned, is Elena Obraztsova. His mistress Lola (mezzo) is Axelle Gall. Alfio the carter (baritone) married to Lola, is Renato Bruson. Turiddu's mother Lucia (contralto) is sung by Fedora Barbieri. You can almost guess the plot from that line-up (except for who gets killed in the end); but anyway Britannica tells the plot. You can watch a great production of the full opera on YouTube, performed in the Piazza of the little Sicilian hill town of Noto. Or the Zefferelli movie - but we'll play it in its entirety on Friday. There are other full productions on YouTube, including an absolutely superb movie under von Karajan from 1968 (again I would say on location in Sicily), cast is here.