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Cavalleria rusticana, Clowns
Pietro Mascagni, Ruggiero Leoncavallo
State Opera Prague
Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) by Pietro Mascagni (1863 – 1945), a one-act opera set in a Sicilian village, is considered to be the key work of Italian verismo, introducing contemporary characters, people with poor background and from lower social strata onto the stage. At the world premiere in Teatro Costanzi in Rome on May 17, 1890 Mascagni received endless standing ovations and Cavalleria rusticana triumphantly flew around the world. This inspired the then almost unknown Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857 – 1919) to compose an opera in the same style – and for him too the world premiere of I Pagliacci (The Clowns) in Teatro dal Verme in Milan on May 21, 1892 meant an immediate success. Common to both the titles is the topic of passionate love and deadly jealousy leading to a murder. In Cavalleria rusticana a lightheaded Lola would not give up her former lover Turridu, now engaged to Santuzza. Lola’s husband Alfio challenges Turiddu to a duel in which he kills him. Just as tragic is the end of I Pagliacci, a story of an aging actor called Canio who learns about a love affair of his young wife Nedda and in revenge kills both her and his rival. No wonder that both the works soon started to be presented together during the same evening – for the first time in Teatro Costanzi in Rome in 1893 – though they have also been presented together with other operas, in most varied, sometimes even bizarre, combinations. The recording of Vesti la giubba, famous Canio’s aria, by Enrico Caruso became the first record in history to sell over a million copies. Both the titles also made their mark in the history of technological advancement: on January 13, 1910 the world’s first live radio broadcast of an opera was transmitted, namely the performance of these operas at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; with Ema Destinová as Santuzza and Enrico Caruso as Canio.
Both the operas immediately attracted also the directors of Prague opera houses, the National Theatre and the New German Theatre (now the Prague State Opera). According to the prevailing conventions it was the National Theatre that was entitled to present the new works first, but the director Angelo Neumann requested a substantial cut in the prescribed period for the staging in the New German Theatre: Cavalleria rusticana thus received its first performance here already on April 18, 1891 and I Pagliacci on 16 April 1893. The usual combination of these two works was first done by Angelo Neumann on May 14, 1893; both the works were conducted also by Pietro Mascagni (6 January 1925). During the Smetana Theatre era they were staged once only, first I Pagliacci (February 7, 1965) and a year later (March 5, 1966) Cavalleria rusticana together with I Pagliacci. The new production shall be directed and the set shall be designed by Thaddeus Strassberger, the first prize winner of the 2005 European Opera Directing Prize, the costume designer will be Mattie Ullrich.
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