Italian Composer Pietro Mascagni
Contemporary of Giacomo Puccini, Established Verismo Movement
Pietro Mascagni's brief biography - his life and contribution to Italian opera, in particular, Verismo (Realism) movement. Famous for Cavalleria Rusticana.
Pietro Mascagni is known for the lyrical “Easter Hymn” and the passionate but tragic interlude of "Intermezzo” from his opera Cavallaria Rusticana (Rustic chivalry.) “Intermezzo” was used in the film Raging Bull.
Mascagni's Early Training
A baker’s son, Mascagni was born on December 7, 1863, in Livorno, Italy. His father wanted him to take up law so he studied music secretly. When his father found out, an uncle rescued and took him in his care. At 18 years old, the teenage Mascagni wrote a symphony, a cantata and a mass.
He formally studied at the Milan Conservatory where he shared lodging with Giacomo Puccini, both of them taught by composer Amilcare Ponchielli, famous for the opera La Gioconda.
In 1884, he travelled by working as a conductor with a touring opera company, married, managed a small town school and gave piano lessons.
Mascagni's and his Signature Opera Cavalleria Rusticana
Mascagni won first prize in a competition for one-act operas. His entry was none other than Cavalleria Rusticana. The following year, in 1890, Cavalleria Rusticana was staged in Rome. With Cavalleria, Pietro Mascagni rose to immediate international acclaim. This opera is based on a short story and a play - a tale of adultery, revenge and death, revolving around an Italian peasant.
Cavalleria Rusticana is often recorded together with Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci.
Mascagni's Later Works
Although some numbers from L’amico Fritz and the oriental Iris have survived in the repertory, none of his succeeding operas was anything as successful as Cavalleria Rusticana. He once said: "It is a pity I wrote Cavalleria Rusticana first; I was crowned before I was king!" (Dictionary of Composers and Their Music by Eric Gilder, Sphere Reference, 1987.)
His later works include the comedy Le maschere, the unexpectedly powerful Il piccolo Marat and Nerone, this last testifying to his identification with fascism.
Mascagni belonged to generation of Italian opera composers including Puccini and Leoncavallo. During the last years of the 19th-century, he contributed to the movement called verismo (meaning, 'realism'), featuring stories of ordinary people rather than the traditional grand and noble themes. In a manner of a true Italian son, simple yet intense drama appealed to Pietro Mascagni. He died in Rome, 1945.
Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana ensures him a place in the history of the opera.
Operas by Pietro Mascagni
- Cavalleria Rusticana ('Rustic Chivalry') 1888
- L'amico Fritz ('Friend Friz') 1891
- Iris 1898
- La maschere 1901
- Il Piccolo Marat 1921
- Nerone ('Nero') 1934
Sources
Dictionary of composers and Their Music by Eric Gilder, Sphere Reference (1987)
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, Macmillan, edited by Stanley Sadie (1994)
