Introduction

Xu Zhong, Director of Shanghai Opera House and renowned conductor, together with soprano He Hui, will open the 2021-2022 season of Shanghai Opera House and Shanghai Grand Theatre. Young tenors Xue Haoyin and Han Peng, and baritone Sun Li will also join the Shanghai Opera House Chorus and Symphony Orchestra to perform the "twin stars" of the world opera stage - Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. 

Pietro Mascagni

Pietro Mascagni, (born December 7, 1863, Livorno, Kingdom of Italy—died August 2, 1945, Rome, Italy), Italian operatic composer, one of the principal exponents of verismo, a style of opera writing marked by melodramatic, often violent plots with characters drawn from everyday life.

Mascagni studied at the conservatory at Milan, but, unable to submit to the discipline of his master, Amilcare Ponchielli, he left to join a traveling opera company. In 1889 he won the first prize in a competition with his one-act opera Cavalleria rusticana, based on a Sicilian melodrama by Giovanni Verga. It was produced at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome, on May 17, 1890, and was an instant success; it subsequently maintained its popularity, usually being given with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s one-act Pagliacci. Le maschere (1901), reviving the commedia dell’arte, is musically superior, though it had little success. Mascagni succeeded Arturo Toscanini as musical director of La Scala, Milan, in 1929. Among Mascagni’s other operas are L’amico Fritz (1891), Iris (1898), and Nerone (1935), the last glorifying Benito Mussolini.

Ruggero Leoncavallo

Ruggero Leoncavallo, (born March 8, 1857/58, Naples—died Aug. 9, 1919, Montecatini Terme, near Florence), Neapolitan opera composer whose fame rests on the opera Pagliacci, which, with Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana (1890), represented a reaction against Richard Wagner and against Romantic Italian opera; both works substituted for the quasi-historical plot a sensational story from everyday life.

Leoncavallo studied at the Naples Conservatory and subsequently supported himself by giving café concerts and piano and singing lessons. His first operas, Chatterton (after Alfred de Vigny) and I Medici (first part of a projected trilogy inspired by the Italian Renaissance), failed to attract attention. He followed them with Pagliacci, composed in the verismo, or realistic, style of Mascagni. Produced in Milan in 1892, it was an immediate success. His La Bohème (1897) suffered from comparison with Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. Zazà (1900) was more successful, but Der Roland (1904), commissioned by Wilhelm II to glorify the Hohenzollerns, was a failure. A number of later works achieved passing success. For most of his operas Leoncavallo was his own librettist and showed a distinct literary ability and a flair for theatrical effect.

Cavalleria Rusticana

Cavalleria rusticana, (Italian: “Rustic Chivalry”) opera in one act by the Italian composer Pietro Mascagni (Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci) that premiered in Rome on May 17, 1890. A short and intense work, it sets to music the Italian writer Giovanni Verga’s short story (1880) and play (produced 1884) of the same name, which tells a story of love, betrayal, and revenge in Sicily. Mascagni’s opera was an instant success, and it started a trend in opera for the naturalistic, often violent verismo style associated in literature with Verga and his contemporary Luigi Capuana.

In 1888 Mascagni heard of a competition for one-act operas. With four complete operas to his name, he was on the verge of submitting one act of his historical drama Guglielmo Ratcliff when he learned that his wife had already sent in Cavalleria rusticana without his knowledge. It won a top prize and went on to become an international success. The most famous excerpt is the lyrical intermezzo connecting the opera’s two scenes.

Pagliacci

Pagliacci, (Italian: “Clowns” or “Players”) verismo opera with both words and music by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Based on an actual crime, Pagliacci owes its continuing success in part to the composer’s ability to balance humour, romance, and darkly violent moods. It premiered in Milan on May 21, 1892, with the conductor Arturo Toscanini on the podium. The opera’s most-recognizable aria is the leading tenor’s aria “Vesti la giubba,” which occurs midway through the opera.

Pagliacci was the second of the nine operas by Leoncavallo. In a prologue and two acts that span about an hour’s time in performance, it tells the story of an acting troupe led by a jealous man who is ultimately driven to murder his actress wife and her lover. The jealous husband—the actor Canio—is written as a tenor role. The great tenors of the past century considered the role a challenge, because the character exhibits a wide range of moods, from manic humour to murderous rage. In the famed aria mentioned above, he muses upon the challenge of playing a comedic role while his heart is breaking.

HE Hui

Main Cast

Conductor: XU Zhong

Director: Martin Constantine

Performed by: Shanghai Opera House, Shanghai Huangpu Youngster's Art Activity Center Spring Children's Choir

Main Artists: