Pietro Mascagni
Though regarded by casual opera followers as a one-work composer, Pietro Mascagni wrote other operas of interest and some quality. Aside from Cavalleria Rusticana, the winsomely comic L'amico Fritz, the wrenchingly dramatic Iris, and Il Piccolo Marat attest to a diversity of mood and manner. Still, Mascagni's first opera was so successful that subsequent efforts simply could not equal that initial triumph. His embrace of Mussolini's Fascist regime seemed self-serving during the 1920s and 1930s; at the end, it left Mascagni discredited and impoverished.
Although his parents had conceived for their son a career in law, Mascagni did receive some private training. However, when he began to study with the director of the newly formed Istituto Musicale Livornese, his father forbade further musical studies until a bachelor uncle interceded to offer young Pietro a home and means to finance his training. When Mascagni arrived at the Milan Conservatory, he remained only two years before embarking on an unsettled career as an orchestra member and occasional conductor of touring operetta companies. Upon marriage to Lina Carbognani in 1889, he settled in Puglia as a music instructor.
To a competition mounted by the music publisher Sonzogno, Mascagni submitted his third opera, Cavalleria Rusticana, in February 1890. At its Roman premiere on May 17, an unprecedented success propelled the composer from provincial hopeful to newly minted maestro. The following year, Mascagni enjoyed a more muted achievement with L'Amico Fritz. Silvano brought a return to verismo in 1895, although its reception was less positive than that accorded Iris, a substantial success in 1899 with a hyper-intense Oriental theme. Recurrently, the composer turned to themes of loss when choosing his libretti, recalling the desolation he felt at his mother's death when he was but 10 years old. An illicit relationship with Anna Lolli, begun in 1903, lasted until Mascagni's death in 1945.
Mascagni continued to compose in the new century, completing Isabeau in 1911, Parisina in 1913, Lodoletta in 1917, and Il piccolo Marat in 1921. As with the overblown Nerone, written in 1935 to please the regime, Mascagni often explored the outer limits of vocal possibility with punishing tessituras and unrelentingly high volume. He appeared occasionally as a conductor, more positively in Italy than in an ill-conceived American tour in 1902-03.
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Pietro Mascagni : Guglielmo Ratcliff
Opera - Released by RTÉ Lyric FM on 28 Oct 2016
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pietro Mascagni: Zanetto
Opera - Released by Odyssey Opera on 13 Sep 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MASCAGNI: L'AMICO FRITZ
Opera - Released by Nar Classical on 13 Sep 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pietro Mascagni: Parisina Atto IV, Guardando la Santa Teresa del Bernini, Intermezzi e Sinfonie da opere
Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Classical - Released by Materiali Sonori on 4 Dec 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana, Intermezzo sinfonico
Staatskapelle Berlin, Pietro Mascagni
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1927
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana (Mono Version)
Pietro Mascagni, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Beniamino Gigli, Giuletta Simionato
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1952
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mascagni: Silvano
Opera - Released by Elysium Recordings, Inc. on 8 Jan 2014
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Mascagni: Zanetto
Opera - Released by Elysium Recordings, Inc. on 14 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mascagni: L'ami Fritz (Mono Version)
Pia Tassinari, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Pietro Mascagni, Orchestra dell'EIAR di Torino
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Famous Opera Choruses
Radio Symphony Orchestra Ljubljana, Choir of the Budapest State Opera, Orchestra of the Budapest State Opera
Opera - Released by Blaricum CD Company (B.C.D.) B.V. on 26 Feb 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MASCAGNI: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA
Opera - Released by Nar Classical on 21 Jan 1997
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Mascagni: Le maschere, Overture (Excerpt)
Mitglieder Der Staatskapelle Berlin, Pietro Mascagni
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1928
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Cavalleria Rusticana
Renata Castro, Franca Zanelli, Luigi Visetti
Opera - Released by Period Records on 16 Mar 1965
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Mascagni: Intermezzo
Mitglieder Der Staatskapelle Berlin, Pietro Mascagni
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1927
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Verdi: Aida, Ballet Music
Kapelle der Staatsoper Berlin, Pietro Mascagni
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1927
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Mascagni: Inno al sole
Mitglieder Der Staatskapelle Berlin, Pietro Mascagni
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Apr 1927
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Cavalleria Rusticana
Opera - Released by Opera d'Oro on 14 Mar 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Best Opera Singers, Vol. IX
Opera - Released by SB Clasic on 22 Nov 2002
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Best Opera Singers, Vol. I
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Beniamino Gigli
Opera - Released by SB Clasic on 22 Nov 2002
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Mascagni: Visione lirica (Excerpt)
Mitglieder Der Staatskapelle Berlin, Pietro Mascagni
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1928
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La cavalleria rusticana
Opera - Released by Vintage Jukebox on 3 Feb 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo