Verismo: from literature to opera

Abstract

The present study is mainly concerned with a comparative analysis of the libretti and the literary sources of some Italian operas composed between 1890 and 1900, that is in the decade commonly identified as 'veristic', opened by Cavalleria Rusticana and closed by Tosca. It also attempts a reassessment of the connections between literary verismo and the musical theatre of the late nineteenth century in Italy.

The controversial evaluation of some 'veristic' operas has often led to wrong assumptions concerning the characteristics of literary verismo. While the positive contributions of the movement to the musical theatre have, on the whole, been overlooked, major shortcomings - such as excess and sensationalism - noticeable in operas of the 1890s, have been blamed on veristic literature. The essential features of literary verismo could not, and did not, pass into any operatic adaptation. A comparative analysis of the source and the libretto of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana shows the limited extent to which Verga's innovative conception was preserved in the musical transposition.

The major figures of Italian literary verismo, Giovanni Verga and Luigi Capuana, happened to be personally involved in the adaptation of some works of their own for the musical theatre, namely La Lupa and I1 Mistero by the former, Malia by the latter. The outcome of the experiment was altogether disappointing, partly because Verga and Capuana were not able, nor indeed willing, to challenge the established conventions of a versified operatic text, partly for the modest level of the composers who set their libretti (P. Tasca, D. Monleone, F. P. Frontini).

The prevailingly literary approach chosen in this study accounts for the exclusion of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci from a detailed textual analysis, though the opera is referred to in Chapter 1. Its libretto was written by the composer himself on the basis of recollections from his childhood. On the other hand, the inclusion of a totally neglected opera, Giordano's Mala Vita, is justified by the literary source of the libretto (a play by Salvatore Di Giacomo).

The analysis of a libretto would not be exhaustive if it did not take into account the musical treatment of the text. This has not been neglected in the examination of the operas selected for the present study. Musical illustrations from the vocal scores have been included along with excerpts from the literary sources and the libretti.