Mascagni & Leoncavallo: Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci (2-CD) – Opera Graz

Composer: Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo
Artists: Ezgi Hutlu, Aldo di Toro, Cheryl Studer, Audun Iversen, Mareike Jankowski, Aurelia Florian, Martin Fournier, Neven Crni?, Chor & Extrachor der Oper Graz, Singschul’ der Oper Graz, Grazer Philharmoniker
Conductor: Oksana Lyniv
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Oehms
CD Release Date: February 14, 2020

This is where two one-hit wonders of nineteenth-century Italian opera meet. Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana was first performed in Rome in 1890 and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci in Milan two years later. The subject of the Cavalleria Rusticana is based on a then-popular peasant tragedy by Giovanni Verga. Pagliacci draws on the play La Femme de Tabarin by Catulle Mendès, with the libretto by the composer.

Both operas premiered the Opera Graz season on September 29, 2018 with the Grazer Philharmoniker under the direction of Oksana Lyniv.

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