The Classical Music Book

194

EMOTIONAL

ART IS A KIND

OF ILLNESS

TOSCA (1900), GIACOMO PUCCINI

W

ith the first performance

of Cavalleria rusticana

in 1890, a new kind

of opera was born. Rather than

being based on romanticized

historical or legendary subjects,

it strove for realism (or verismo, in

Italian), embracing down-to-earth,

sometimes sordid events, lived by

believably ordinary people in often

contemporary settings.

At this time, Puccini, a former

flatmate of Cavalleria’s composer

Pietro Mascagni, was six years into

an opera career. This had begun in

1884 with Le villi, a picturesque

leggenda drammatica (dramatic

legend) based on the same story of

dead spirits as the romantic ballet

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Verismo

BEFORE

1890 Winner of a competition

for a new one-act opera,

Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria

rusticana launches the

“verismo” (realism) music

movement in Rome.

1892 Modeled on Cavalleria,

Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera

Pagliacci is a hit in Milan,

consolidating verismo style.

AFTER

1904 Puccini suffers a setback

when Madama Butterfly is

booed at its premiere in Milan,

although it bounces back three

months later in Brescia.

1926 Two years after Puccini’s

death, his Turandot, completed

by his younger colleague

Franco Alfano, is premiered

at La Scala in Milan.

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