A One-Hit Wonder of the Opera Kind

Pietro Mascagni

What do Edison Lighthouse, Five Stairsteps, Terry Jacks and Pietro Masagni have in common? Give up? They are all one-hit wonders. That is, they wrote (or recorded) only one piece of music that made it big.

Poor Pietro. He wrote seventeen operas, but is only known for one: Cavalleria rusticana ("Rustic Chivalry"). But, boy was it a hit.

Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni (prounounced "mas-ka-knee") was born in Livorno, Tuscany, Italy on December 7, 1863.  He died in Rome on August 2, 1945. He wrote Cavalleria rusticana in 1890. It had one of the biggest impacts on opera history, single-handedly beginning the verismo movement in Italian operan. The verismo movement stressed realistic depictions of contemporary, everyday life, especially among the lower class. The movement rejected Romanticised or mythical subject matter. Cavalleria rusticana centers on themes of adultery, betrayel and revenge.  It doesn't get any more realistic than that. The opera caused Mascagni to enjoy great success during his lifetime as a composer and conductor of his own and other people's music.

To read the story line of the opera, click here.

The famous Intermezzo is played between two scenes of the opera. It is scored for woodwinds, organ and strings. After a quiet introduction, the organ and strings play a soaring melody, which eventually winds down to a quiet ending.

Watch conductor Riccardo Muti (recently named as the Chicago Symphony's music director) in a performance of the Intermezzo from the orchestra pit of the 1996 Festival de Ravenna. He is conducting the Orquesta del Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Watch here.

Round four of our face off begins tomorrow: Offenbach versus Rossini.