Vintage Italian postcard, 1930s. B.F.F. Edit. (Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze), No. 728.
Pietro Mascagni, born in Livorno on 7 December 1863 and died in Rome on 2 August 1945, was one of the most important Italian opera composers of the turn of the 20th century.
Mascagni was born in Livorno in 1863. His father was a baker, and his mother died when he was still very young. His father wanted him to study law, but Pietro went to study music at the Milan Conservatory, where Ponchielli was his teacher and Puccini his co-disciple. He abandoned his studies and became the director of a small operetta troupe. He moved to a small town, Cerignola, where he became a music teacher and conductor of the small local orchestra. The young composer lived in relative poverty until he won the Sonzogno competition with his most famous opera: Cavalleria rusticana (1889), based on an argument by Giovanni Verga. It was on the day he began this little opera that his first daughter was born. This marital bliss gave him the strength to write the work in around twenty days. Cavalleria was performed in 1890, and was a stunning success: in less than a year, Mascagni was famous the world over. Even Mahler was enthusiastic, whereas he, for example, sneered at a performance of Puccini's La Bohème. This illustrates the fact that during his youth, Mascagni would be as highly esteemed, if not more so, than Puccini. This was the first manifestation of musical verism. Other operas followed, the most famous of which were: L'amico Fritz (1891) and Iris (1898), considered his best opera and still performed in Italy.
(Source: French Wikipedia)
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