Cavalleria Rusticana

National Opera and Ballet, on february 12, 2012, at 8pm announce the tragic story of the love triangle, the tradition that intersects between passion and love, hatred and revenge.

Cavalleria rusticana,  is a opera in one act by the Italian composer Pietro Mascagani that premiered in Rome on May 17, 1890. A short and intense work, it sets to music the Italian writer Giovani Vergas short story (1880) and play (1894) of the same name, which tells a story of love, betrayal, and revenge in Sicily. Mascagni’s opera was an instant success, and it started a trend in opera for the naturalistic, often violent verismo style associated in literature with Verga and his contemporary Luigi Capuana.

In 1888 Mascagni heard of a competition for one-act operas. With four complete operas to his name, he was on the verge of submitting one act of his historical drama Guglielmo Ratcliff when he learned that his wife had already sent in Cavalleria rusticana without his knowledge. It won a top prize and went on to become an international success. The most famous excerpt is the lyrical intermezzo connecting the opera’s two scenes.

Conductor: Ivan Eminovic
The soloists performed: Vesna Gjinovska Ilkova, Gjorgji Cuckovski, Boris Trajanov, Katerina Stojanovska, Sonja Pendovska Madevska, the choir and the Orchestra of the National Opera and Ballet.