Organization

Admin

Mariinsky Theatre

Conductor

Valery Gergiev

Stage director

Arnaud Bernard

Costume designer

Marianna Stránská

Lighting designer

Chorus master

Konstantin Rylov

Singer

Soprano

Ekaterina Semenchuk

Santuzza

Tenor

Akhmed Agadi

Turiddu

Mezzo-soprano

Elena Gorlo

Lola

Baritone

Vladislav Kupriyanov

Alfio

Contralto

Varvara Solovyova

Lucia

Italian

Cavalleria rusticana -  (Rustic Chivalry)

Saint Petersburg

Russia

Mariinsky-2

Cavalleria rusticana Mascagni

Public

Rustic Chivalry

Russian

Approved

Arnaud Bernard's production transposes the action of the opera's plot from a village in Sicily to the Italian Quarter of New York in the 1920s. The stage director believes that Italian immigrants brought with them to the New World the same earthy and archaic understanding of life and death, faith and honour and love and destiny that were commonly accepted in Sicily in the mid 19th century – the time when the story of Cavalleria rusticana unfolds, the novella serving as the basis for the libretto. If love before marriage can excommunicate a sinner from communion, if treachery leads to a knife-fight between rivals, then an insult may be washed away with blood, piety is proper, vengeance has deep roots and respect for one's mother becomes true "mammismo". In the 1890s, the portrayal of these powerful emotions verging on naturalism found an unexpected and passionate response with audiences and then, immediately following its premiere, the young Pietro Mascagni's first opera was staged at dozens of theatres in Europe and America. It paved the way for an entire movement in Italian opera which was given the name "verismo" (from the Italian "vero" meaning "truth"). By the close of the century verismo had died out, though its ideas were reflected in the operas of Giacomo Puccini and Francesco Cilea among other composers and, later on, in Italian cinema.

English

Rustic Chivalry by Mascagni, From (2023/2023), Directed by Arnaud Bernard,, Conductor Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky-2, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues