Cavalleria Rusticana - Performance History

Performance History

Although Mascagni had started writing two other operas earlier (Pinotta, premiered in 1932 and Guglielmo Ratcliff, premiered in 1895), Cavalleria rusticana was his first opera to be completed and performed. It remains the best known of his fifteen operas and one operetta (Sì). Apart from Cavalleria rusticana, only Iris and L'amico Fritz have remained in the standard repertory, with Isabeau and Il piccolo Marat on the fringes of the Italian repertoire.

Its success has been phenomenal from its first performance in the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on May 17, 1890 until the present day. At the time of Mascagni's death in 1945, the opera had been performed more than 14,000 times in Italy alone.

The first performance of Cavalleria rusticana caused a sensation, with Mascagni taking 40 curtain calls on the opening night, and winning the First Prize. That same year, following its sold-out run of performances at the Teatro Costanzi, the opera was produced throughout Italy and in Berlin. It received its London premiere at the Shaftesbury Theatre on October 19, 1891 and its Covent Garden premiere on May 16, 1892.

American producers vied with each other (sometimes through the courts) to be the first to present the opera in that country. Cavalleria rusticana finally had its American premiere in Philadelphia at the Grand Opera House on September 9, 1891, followed by Chicago on September 30, 1891. The opera premiered in New York on October 1, 1891 with two rival performances on the same day, an afternoon performance at the Casino, directed by Rudolph Aronson and an evening performance at the Lenox Lyceum directed by Oscar Hammerstein.

The opera received its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera on December 30, 1891 in a double bill with a fragment of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, and has since received 652 performances there, the most recent of which was on April 10, 2009 with José Cura as Turiddu and Ildikó Komlósi as Santuzza.