Cavalleria rusticana (“rustic chivalry”) is a dark and gritty tale of love and revenge which sets to music a play of the same title by Italian writer Giovanni Verga. Mascagni’s opera is often identified as a launching point for the verismo (“realism”) trend, thanks to its naturalistic narrative approach, its focus on ordinary people, and its passionate, violent content. The style remained popular into the early 1900s, and its influence can be seen in works from Giordano’s Andrea Chénier to Puccini’s Tosca.

You’ve heard this before

Perhaps the best known music from Cavalleria rusticana is the lyrical intermezzo, which is based on a hymn heard from inside the village church early in the opera. A work of gentle pastoral beauty and simmering emotional intensity, it subtly foreshadows the tragedy about to unfold on an otherwise joyful day.

A winning double bill

Cavalleria rusticana is often staged with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci as a double bill colloquially referred to as “Cav/Pag.” The most famous of Leoncavallo’s 10 operas, Pagliacci (“The Clowns”) tells the tale of an actor who murders his wife and her lover on stage during a performance. Its verismo elements are believed to have been inspired by Cavalleria rusticana.