In opera, verismo, from vero, meaning 'true', was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea a
Giacomo Puccini, one of the composers most closely associated with verismo.
Cavelleria Rusticana, considered the first Verismo opera
Pagliacci is a famous Verismo opera
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent
Verismo
…for 'Rustic Chivalry'), then developed into a play by the same author, became the source for what is usually considered to be the first verismo opera: Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni, which premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Thus begun, the operatic genre of verismo produced a handful of notable…
Mascagni (center) with his librettists, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti (left) and Guido Menasci
Russian edition of the Cavalleria rusticana script (1896)
Gemma Bellincioni as Santuzza, and her husband, Roberto Stagno, as Turiddu, in the 1890 premiere of Cavalleria rusticana