Betrayal and Retribution

As the nineteenth century neared its end, Italian opera was in the midst of a crisis. What many considered to be Italian opera’s peak—the so-called bel canto period of the 1820s to the 1840s—had ended with the retirement of Rossini, the death of Bellini, and the confinement of Donizetti to an insane asylum. The bel canto period, which translates as beautiful singing was defined by perfect evenness throughout the voice, a light upper register, tremendous agility and flexibility, and a certain lyric, "sweet" color to the voice.

With the notable exception of Verdi, relatively few Italian composers had operas produced since the peak of the bel canto period. The vacuum was increasingly filled by operas from Germany (Wagner’s operas were heard in Italy beginning in 1871, when Lohengrin was performed at La Scala—in Italian) and France (chiefly operas of Meyerbeer, Bizet, Gounod, and Massenet). The characteristics of German and French opera began to influence Italian opera composers to the dismay of many Italian opera goers (even Verdi was sometimes accused of “Wagnerism”).

The answer to this dilemma came in 1890, not so much in the form of a person, but in that of a new style: verismo. Composers began to turn to stories about the common people set in the contemporary period. Verismo operas tend to be short, usually in two parts separated by an intermezzo. They usually have simple stories and characters with whom the audience can relate. They deal with basic emotions that are conveyed in a direct manner by the music and the vocal approach. True verismo operas are relatively few, but the term has been used to cover most of the Italian operas written in the years following Cavalleria and I Pagliacci on the basis of their musical style.

Perhaps the most lasting legacy of the verismo movement is not in its naturalistic plots or the characteristic melodic forms, but rather in the singing style that developed from necessity out of the heightened emotional character of these operas and the increasing size of the orchestra, a style marked by a more strenuous-sounding approach instead of the purity of vocal production which exemplified the bel canto period. Cavalleria Rusticana had its world premiere on May 17, 1890 at Teatro Costanzi in Rome.

Renay Conlin, General & Artistic Director