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Pietro Mascagni
December 7, 1863 - August 2, 1945
born in Livorno, Italy, composed during the Romantic period
Biography
Though regarded by casual opera followers as a one-work composer, Pietro Mascagni wrote other operas of interest and some quality. Aside from Cavalleria Rusticana, the winsomely comic L'amico Fritz, the wrenchingly dramatic Iris, and Il Piccolo Marat attest to a diversity of mood and manner. Still, Mascagni's first opera was so successful that subsequent efforts simply could not equal that initial triumph. His embrace of Mussolini's Fascist regime seemed self-serving during the 1920s and 1930s; at the end, it left Mascagni discredited and impoverished.

Although his parents had conceived for their son a career in law, Mascagni did receive some private training. However, when he began to study with the director of the newly formed Istituto Musicale Livornese, his father forbade further musical studies until a bachelor uncle interceded to offer young Pietro a home and means to finance his training. When Mascagni arrived at the Milan Conservatory, he remained only two years before embarking on an unsettled career as an orchestra member and occasional conductor of touring operetta companies. Upon marriage to Lina Carbognani in 1889, he settled in Puglia as a music instructor.

To a competition mounted by the music publisher Sonzogno, Mascagni submitted his third opera, Cavalleria Rusticana, in February 1890.