- Mascagni, Pietro
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born Dec. 7, 1863, Livorno, Italydied Aug. 2, 1945, RomeItalian composer.He began to compose when very young. At the Milan Conservatory he studied with Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–86) and was Giacomo Puccini's roommate, but he was expelled. Taking conducting jobs with touring opera companies, he started writing operas and won a contest with his one-act Cavalleria rusticana (1890); it was an instant success from its premiere, and it remains his best-known work.
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▪ Italian composerborn Dec. 7, 1863, Livorno, Kingdom of Italydied Aug. 2, 1945, Rome, ItalyItalian 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. Produced at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome, on May 17, 1890, it was an instant success and 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. He 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.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
