This Sunday night at 8 PM,the Lyric Stage features classic verismo opera with selections from Cavalaria Rusticana and I Pagliacci with singers including Beniamino Gigli, Mario del Monico, Jussi Bjoerling, Leonard Warren and Zinka Milanov.
Western Literature in the 19th century turned to naturalism, a realistic portrayal of ordinary people in their everyday lives and action.These often involved a measure of sex and violence, which were newly fit subjects for books and drama. In Italy it was called verismo, and included a short story and play called Cavellria Rusticana by Giovanni Verga. Pietro Mascagni based his opera of the same name on those sources, and with its premiere in 1890 verismo opera was born.
Two years later, in the prologue to it's eventual twin, I Pagliacci, the character Tonio tells the audience exactly what verismo is before the opera begins. He mocks the old idea that he is there as prologue to tell the audience that the tears the characters will shed are false, and please don't be alarmed by their our agonies of violence. No, he says, what they are going to see is a slice of life, with real emotions, real love, real hate and real violence. We are not mere players, he sings, but flesh and blood just like you.
