Libretto by Targioni-Tozzetti and Menasci, adapted from a short story by Giovanni Verga
First performed at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 17 May 1890
Libretto by the composer
First performed at the Teatro al Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892
CAST - Cavalleria Rusticana
Lola, Alfio's wife
- Axelle Gall
CAST - Pagliacci
Tonio "Taddeo" - Juan Pons
Beppe "Arlecchino" - Florindo Andreolli
Silvio, a villager - Alberto Rinaldi
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala, Milano - Georges Prêtre
Sung in Italian with English subtitles
SYNOPSIS
Background Information
Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo have a few things in common: they wrote instant operatic hits through which their names have gone down in musical history. It may also be said that only through these single works will their names be remembered. Both men were the products of non-musical households and their operatic ambitions were the source of much hard work for many years.
Cavalleria Rusticana was originally a play that Mascagni saw as a student in Milan. Immediately recognizing its musical potential, Mascagni won permission from the playwright Giovanni Verga to adapt the play for the operatic theatre. Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, an old schoolmate of Mascagni's, wrote the opera's libretto. Although Mascagni wrote thirteen other operas, only a few are ever performed, and are not as popular as Cavalleria.
Leoncavallo wrote his own libretto for Pagliacci, and once he set it to music, it won the same prize that Mascagni had won two years earlier with Cavalleria. Although the success of Pagliacci made Leoncavallo an instant star and other of his works were performed, only a few later operas met with any success.
The similarities between the circumstance of the composition and composers of these operas are important to their unique relationship, but the operas themselves carry both musical and dramatic similarities.
Both operas are violent tragedies involving marital infidelity, both make similar use of Italian rustic settings, and both prominently feature a chorus of peasants. Similarities also exist in the structure of these operas. The prelude to Cavalleria is Turiddu's Siciliana, while Pagliacci is opened by the Prologue. Though the two openers are presented very differently - Turiddu sings behind the scenes, while Tonio addresses the audience directly - both explain the events to come quite literally.
Ritual - the celebration of the mass in Cavalleria and the "programmed" actions of Pagliacci's play - becomes a catalyst to the action in both operas. Santuzza's excommunication from the Catholic Church and despair at her solitary existence is underscored by the town-wide celebration of Easter, and brings her to reveal the truth to Alfio. Nedda's infidelity is literally outlined by her role in the play, and her enactment enrages Canio and leads to her murder. The two protagonists are molded by their surroundings, and in a sense are victimized by ritual and artistic habit.
Cavalleria Rusticana was premiered on 17 May 1890, in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi. Pagliacci has its first performance in Milan at the Teatro al Verme on 21 May 1892.
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA
Easter Sunday, a Sicilian village square, c. 1880 ..... Lola and Turiddu once were sweethearts, but when Turiddu went to do his military service she married the local carrier Alfio, who made good money with his horse and cart. When Turiddu found out on his return, he wanted to make Lola jealous by starting a casual affair with Santuzza, a more homely girl than Lola, but genuinely in love with him.
The old passion breaks out again, though, and embedded in the prelude Turiddu is heard serenading Lola before dawn as he leaves her house, where he has spent the night with her as Alfio is conveniently away on business.
Santuzza goes to see Turiddu's mother, Lucia, who keeps a tavern in the village. Lucia is under the impression that Turiddu has gone to a nearby town to fetch some wine and is startled to learn from Santuzza that her son was seen in the village that very morning. Alfio returns, and he too hints that Turiddu was seen sneaking round his cottage. Mamma Lucia invites Santuzza into the house, but she refuses, saying that in her dishonoured state she cannot enter, and neither can she join the other villagers who are at this moment making their way to church for the Easter service. She pours out her frustration and grief to Turiddu's mother.
Mamma Lucia leaves for the church and Turiddu saunters in, his night with Lola still in his thoughts, and he is most surprised and annoyed to find Santuzza there, very upset and in turn attacking him and pleading with him. Turiddu is not a cad, but neither is he a gentleman - in a way he feels sorry for her, and sorry for what he has done to her. But he is so preoccupied with his secret passion for Lola that he gets more and more quarrelsome towards Santuzza. Suddenly, Lola appears on the scene, taunting Santuzza about not going to church - she well knows the reason why - and when she leaves, Turiddu would rather follow her, but Santuzza begs him to stay to talk things out. He feels so tied down and angry that he finally knocks her to the ground to make his escape.
As he makes his way across the village square under Santuzza's curses Alfio appears, and Santuzza, not caring for now what effect her words will have, opens his eyes about Lola's illicit affair with Turiddu. Alfio flies into a rage and swears that he will avenge her, and himself. Santuzza suddenly realizes what is going to happen, but it is too late to stop the inevitable - the code of honour requires Turiddu's blood to be shed.
After the church service, Turiddu invites all the villagers to a glass of wine. He is glowing, toasting Lola with a drinking song. He offers some wine to Alfio, unaware that the man has found out about him and Lola. When the glass is refused in no uncertain terms he knows that he must accept Alfio's challenge, which he does according to the local custom by biting Alfio's ear as the two men embrace prior to the fight. Turiddu expresses his remorse to Alfio, and his sorrow about what will happen to Santuzza should he be killed, but he is ready to accept his fate. The villagers, who have witnessed this scene, disperse in expectant silence.
Rushing into the tavern, he asks his unsuspecting mother for her blessing and bids her to take care of Santuzza. Mamma Lucia is alarmed when he runs out towards the fields at the back of the village. Santuzza enters and throws her arms around Lucia's neck, as excited voices are heard from afar and a woman screams that Turiddu has been killed.
PAGLIACCI
Prologue
The opera opens with a prologue delivered directly to the audience by the hunchback Tonio, one of the actors in the traveling troupe that soon will be the centre of the opera's action. Tonio reminds the audience that beneath the theatrical facade, artists harbour genuine emotions and real passions. Instead of theatrical tricks, he says, the opera will present a slice of life with real laughter and tears. He then orders the curtain to rise, and the action begins.
Act 1 - Southern Italy, around 1865-70
Excited villagers mill about as a small theatrical road company arrives at the outskirts of a Calabrian town. Canio, head of the troupe, describes that night's offering, and when someone jokingly suggests that the hunchback Tonio is secretly enamoured of his young wife, Canio warns he will tolerate no flirting with Nedda. As vesper bells call the women to church, the men go to the tavern, leaving Nedda alone. Disturbed by her husband's vehemence and suspicious glances, she envies the freedom of the birds soaring overhead. Tonio appears and indeed tries to make love to her, but she scorns him. Enraged, he grabs her, and she lashes out with a whip, getting rid of him but inspiring an oath of vengeance. But Nedda in fact does have a lover - Silvio, who now arrives and persuades her to run away with him at midnight. Tonio, who has seen them, hurries off to tell Canio. Before long the jealous husband bursts in on the guilty pair. Silvio escapes, and Nedda refuses to identify him, even when threatened with a knife. Beppe, another player, has to restrain Canio, and Tonio advises him to wait until evening to catch Nedda's lover. Alone, Canio sobs that he must play the clown though his heart is breaking.
Act 2
The villagers, Silvio among them, assemble to see the play Pagliaccio e Colombina. In the absence of her husband, Pagliaccio (played by Canio), Colombina (Nedda) is serenaded by her lover Arlecchino (Beppe), who dismisses her buffoonish servant, Taddeo (Tonio). The sweethearts dine together and plot to poison Pagliaccio, who soon arrives. Arlecchino slips out the window. With pointed malice, Taddeo assures Pagliaccio of his wife's innocence, firing Canio's real-life jealousy. Forgetting the script, he demands that Nedda reveal her lover's name. She tries to continue with the play while the audience applaud the realism of the "acting". Maddened by her defiance, Canio stabs Nedda and then Silvio, who has rushed forward from the crowd to help her. Amid the agitation of the horrified onlookers, Canio murmurs one of the opera's most chilling and ironic lines: The comedy is ended.
