Italian operatic composer, one of the principal of melodramatic opera (verism), often with violent plots and characters drawn from everyday life.
Mascagni decided to become a composer despite his father's opposition who wanted him to become a judge and studied at the conservatory at Milan, but, unable to submit to the discipline of his master, he left to join a traveling opera company. In 1889, he won the first prize in a competition with "Cavalleria Rusticana", based on a Sicilian melodrama, which overshadowed all of his ensuing works. At the end of his life, Pietro Mascagni said "It is a pity I wrote Cavalleria first, for I was crowned before I became a king". In 1932, he joined Mussolini's Fascist Party, and in 1935 he conducted his new opera, which was to be his last, "Nerone", written to the glory of Mussolini.
On August 2, 1945 Mascagni died in general indifference by the public. Yet with "Cavalleria Rusticana" he laid the foundations of verism, and gave to Italian opera some of his most famous arias that the greatest singers will include in their repertoire.
