Soloists - Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana [RECORDED 1940] [CD]

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Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945): Cavalleria RusticanaThere is no doubt that Pietro Mascagni’s reputation rests primarily on Cavalleria rusticana, a pioneering example of verismo, realism, in Italian opera. Born in 1863 in Livorno, the son of a baker, through the intervention of a rich patron he was able to study at Milan Conservatory as a pupil of Ponchielli, sharing rooms with Puccini, five years his senior, but soon left to embark on a career as a composer and conductor. In 1885 he had his operetta Il re a Napoli (The King in Naples) staged by a provincial touring company, but his great success came with triumph in the 1888 one-act opera competition of the publisher Sonzogno and the staging of his award-winning Cavalleria rusticana in Rome in 1890. He followed this in 1891 with L’amico Fritz, a gentle comedy in a pastoral setting, but in contrast to the preceding work. The Intermezzo is included in the present release, together with the overture to I Rantzau, also set in Alsace and successfully mounted in Florence in 1892. The Intermezzo from Mascagni’s operatic version of Heine’s, Guglielmo Ratcliff, a Scottish tragedy of murder and revenge, is followed by two excerpts from the exotic Iris of 1898, a forerunner, in its Japanese setting, of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. From Iris comes the evocative introductory Hymn to the Sun and dances. Le maschere, staged in simultaneously in seven Italian cities in 1901, was a generally unsuccessful attempt at revival of elements of the commedia dell’arte. Mascagni continued to search for inspiration in new subjects and completed his last opera, the tragedy Nerone, in 1934. This was staged at La Scala the following year, with the support of the government, with whose policies the new work, a reaction against current modernism, and the composer were in agreement. Mascagni remained the symbol of a particular cultural epoch until his death in 1945.On the departure of Toscanini from La Scala, an expression of his disagreement with the policies of Mussolini, Mascagni assumed duties there and a continuing connection with the now ruling party. The fiftieth anniversary of the first staging of Cavalleria rusticana was the occasion of particular celebration, represented by the present recording under the composer’s direction. The work is based on an 1883 play by the Sicilian-born writer Giovanni Verga, a drama translated, among other writings of Verga, by D.H.Lawrence.In the anniversary performance the rôle of Turiddu was taken by a singer generally seen as the heir to Caruso, Beniamino Gigli. Born at Recanati, the son of a shoemaker, he had made his operatic début in 1914 at Rovigo in La Gioconda. He made his first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1920 as Faust in Boito’s opera Mefistofele, now established in an international career, while at home he enjoyed the particular favour of Mussolini. After the war he was able to re-establish his internation

Introductory speech by the composer

Intermezzo

Preludio

A casa, a casa, amici

O Lola, ch'ai di latti la cammisa

Viva il vion spumeggiante

Gli aranci olezzano

A voi tutti, salute!

Dite, Mamma Lucia

Mamma, quel vino e generoso

Il cavallo scalpita

Additional recordings of Mascagni as conductor

Beato voi, compar Alfio

Voi lo sapete, o mamma

Tu qui, Santuzza?

Fior di giaggiolo

Ah! lo vedi, che hai tu detto?

Oh! il Signore vi manda, compar Alfio!