The opera Cavalleria rusticana (“Rustic Chivalry”) is Pietro Mascagni’s most celebrated and successful work. The all-encompassing passion, expressed openly and with refreshing force, is what brought this opera such unprecedented success.

Obviously, the artistic value of the libretto also had something to do with it – Giovanni Verga’s short story was considered a small literary masterpiece even before the opera was written. Out of the 70 submissions for the one-act opera competition announced by music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno, Cavalleria rusticana won first place and made the previously unknown composer, who was only 27 at the time, famous overnight. The fight for the right to be the first to stage this opera started all over Europe and even America. For more than half a century, Mascagni lived off the fame and income derived from productions of this work. None of his other operas (of which there were 14) had the same success as Cavalleria rusticana. While the author was still alive, this opera was performed 14,000 times in Italy alone, and these days, there are still more than 700 performances of it in opera houses around the world every year.

The opera tells a tragic story that takes place in a quiet village in Sicily in the 19th century. Turiddu, a soldier who has fulfilled his duty to his homeland, returns home. His dream of reuniting with his fiancée Lola is shattered when he finds out that she has already married the carter, Alfio. Driven by revenge, Turiddu seduces Santuzza, a charming peasant girl. This sparks Lola’s jealousy and she begins an affair with her former fiancé. Poor Santuzza becomes the scapegoat in this love triangle. The villagers condemn her for sinful premarital relations, and the priest forbids her to attend church. It is only Turiddu’s mother who takes compassion on the girl whom her son had seduced and abandoned. Shaken up by this injustice and having lost her good sense, Santuzza tells Alfio what is going on between his wife and Turiddu. Like a true Sicilian, Alfio swears revenge. Realising what she has done, Santuzza tries to dissuade Alfio from taking vendetta, but to no avail. Alfio challenges Turiddu to a duel and kills him.