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 – Maria Callas
Turiddu – Giuseppe Di Stefano
Alfio – Rolondo Panerai
La Scala Opera
Tullio Serafin – conductor
EMI 1960
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.
Cast:
Canio – Franco Corelli
Nedda – Lucine Amara
Tonio – Tito Gobbi
La Scala Opera
Lovro von Matacic – conductor
EMI - 1961
