Italiano | English
Music by
Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by
Giovanni Targioni - Tozzetti and Guido Menasci after the novella and the play of the same name by Giovanni Verga.
The first performance of the Cavalleria rusticana was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on May 17, 1890.
The Characters
- Santuzza, a peasant girl
- Turiddu, a peasant
- Alfio, a carrier
- Lola, Alfio's wife
- Mamma Lucia, Turiddu's mother, an inn-keeper
Opera in one act
Easter Sunday, a Sicilian village square, c. 1880
While the curtain is down, Turiddu sings. The action takes place before the church. Devout pantomime by the church-goers; behind the scene, chorus of peasants. At last Santuzza and Lucia appear from opposite sides of the stage. Turiddu is the lover of Santuzza and she believes he has discarded her for Lola; she has seen him entering the young woman’s house. The carrier Alfio, the husband of Lola, appears with the chorus and also says that he has seen Turiddu, but thinks nothing wrong of it. When Lucia, who has sent her son to Frankofonte for wine, inquires further into the matter, she is asked to be silent by Santuzza.
After the chorus with Alfio has departed, Santuzza recites her wrongs. Turiddu loved Lola, but after his service in the army found her married to Alfio. He then entered into relations with Santuzza, and is now turning back to his former love. The alarmed Lucia enters the church with the peasants. Santuzza awaits Turiddu, who, however, treats her coldly and drives her to despair by leaving her and entering the church with Lola. Santuzza exclaims, and discovers to the returning Alfio the unfaithfulness of Lola. Breathing vengeance, the carrier resolves to kill Turiddu and departs with Santuzza. During the following orchestral music the stage remains empty. Turiddu, Lola and the chorus emerge from the church; Turiddu sings a drinking song and is then challenged by Alfio to a duel with knives after the manner of the Sicilians. Promising to follow Alfio he takes a moving farewell of his mother, and asks her to care for the unhappy Santuzza, whom he has so deeply wronged. After a short pause, Santuzza, followed by a crowd of women, rushes upon the stage, and with the stark cry of "Turiddu is dead," the opera ends abruptly. (Wikipedia)
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