Cavalleria rusticana (Italian for "rustic chivalry") 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 play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called Cav/Pag double-bill with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

Cast:

Santuzza – Giulietta Simionato

Turiddu – Achille Braschi

Lola – Fernanda Cadoni

Alfio – Carlo Tagliabue

Mamma Lucia – Liliana Pellegrino

Arturo Basile – conductor

Recored in Turin in 1952 on CETRA

Pagliacci is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It is the only Leoncavallo opera that is still widely performed. Opera companies have frequently staged Pagliacci with Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni, a double bill known colloquially as 'Cav and Pag'.

Pagliacci premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on May 21, 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, with Adelina Stehle as Nedda, Fiorello Giraud as Canio, Victor Maurel as Tonio, and Mario Ancona as Silvio. Nellie Melba played Nedda in London in 1893, soon after the Italian premiere, and it was given in New York on June 15, 1893, with Agostino Montegriffo as Canio.

Cast:

Nedda - Carla Gavazzi

Canio – Carlo Bergonzi

Tonio – Carlo Tagilabue

Alfredo Simonetto – conductor

Recorded in Milan in 1951 on CETRA.