Cavalleria rusticana facts for kids

Stagno and Bellincioni as Tiriddu and Santuzza in the first performance, 1890

Cavalleria rusticana is a famous Italian opera (a play where the words are sung). It has only one act, which means it's shorter than many other operas. The music was created by Pietro Mascagni. The story and the words, called the libretto, were written by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci. They based the opera on a play by Giovanni Verga.

This opera was first shown in Rome on May 17, 1890. It was a very important work because it started a new style in Italian opera called verismo. This style focused on realistic stories about everyday people. Cavalleria rusticana is often performed together with another opera called Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Both operas are about an hour long, so they make a full evening of entertainment.

Characters in the Opera

Here are the main characters you will meet in Cavalleria rusticana:

• Santuzza, a young woman from the village (soprano voice)
• Turiddu, a young man who lives in the village (tenor voice)
• Lucia, Turiddu's mother (contralto voice)
• Alfio, a man who drives a cart (baritone voice)
• Lola, Alfio's wife (mezzo-soprano voice)

Images for kids

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  Mascagni (center) with his librettists, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti (left) and Guido Menasci

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  Santuzza pleads with Turiddu that he not go to meet with Lola again.

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  Turiddu bites Alfio's ear

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  Advertisement for 1930 radio broadcast with Lisa Roma

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  Poster for the Carmine Gallone film version of Cavalleria rusticana (1953)