CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA

Libretto by Giovanni Targioni and Guido Menasci
Italian text by Giovanni Verga
Music by Pietro Mascagni

PERSONAGGI
Santuzza, soprano
Lola, mezzo-soprano
Turiddo, tenor
Alfio, baritone
Lucia, contralto

Musical Direction: Andrea Gottfried
Directed by: Fabio Midolo
Revival Direction: Massimo Marani
Costume Design: Giulio Leone
Costumes by: Sartoria Bianchi
Production: FuoriOpera

Among the sun-scorched hills of this volcanic land, passions burn fiercely: love, resentment, abandonment and revenge—passions of flesh and blood, consumed in blood, as red as ripe cherries.

Santuzza is consumed by a tormented love for Turiddu. The young man leaves to serve as a soldier, but on his return his desire is rekindled for Lola, the woman he has always loved, now married to Alfio. Lola does not reject Turiddu’s advances, and the two meet in secret. Santuzza, aware of their clandestine encounters, wants Turiddu back at any cost. When he denies everything, she publicly reveals her love and betrayal—first to Mamma Lucia, Turiddu’s mother, and then to Alfio, who, enraged and humiliated, challenges him to a duel.

Events rapidly spiral out of control. The two men face each other according to the unwritten laws of honour. Turiddu is killed, leaving Santuzza alone in her grief.

The story is narrated by Cola, the pure soul of the village and voice of innocence, who, with amurusanza—tender affection—guides the audience through a rural world where human passions are not merely the backdrop to everyday hardship, but the very force that shapes a life made of simple gestures and irreversible choices.