The opera "Rural Honor" (orig. Cavalleria rusticana) is Pietro Mascagni's best-known and most successful work. Appearing on Italian stages in 1890, it immediately received a huge response and is still heard in the repertoires of the world's best opera houses and attracts the most famous performers.
An all-encompassing passion expressed openly and with refreshing force are the qualities of this opera that have earned it unprecedented success. Of course, the artistic value of the libretto also contributed to this - Giovanni Verga's novella was considered a small literary masterpiece even before the creation of the opera. Out of 70 works submitted to the one-act opera competition announced by the publisher Edoardo Sonzogno, "Village's Honor" won first place and made the previously unknown composer, who was only 27 years old at the time, famous overnight. The fight for the right to be the first to stage this opera started all over Europe and even America. For more than half a century, Mr. Mascagni lived on the fame and income of his productions of this work. None of his other operas (and their composer wrote fourteen more) had such success as "Village Honor". While the author was still alive, this opera was performed 14,000 times in Italy alone, and nowadays the work is performed on world opera stages more than 700 times a year.
The opera tells a tragic story that took place in the silent 19th century. in a Sicilian village. Turidu, a soldier who has fulfilled his duty to his homeland, returns home. His dream of a long-awaited meeting with his fiancée Lola is shattered, because she is already married to someone else - Alfio, a carriage worker. Driven by revenge, Turidu seduces the charming village girl Santuca. This act arouses Lola's jealousy and she starts an affair with her ex-fiancé. Poor Santuca becomes the scapegoat in this love triangle. The villagers condemn her for sinful premarital relations, the priest forbids the girl from visiting the church. Turidu's single mother sympathizes with the girl seduced and abandoned by her son. Shocked by such injustice and losing her sanity, Santuca tells Alfijo about the relationship between his wife and Turidu. As a true Sicilian, Alfio vows revenge. Realizing what she did, Santuca tries to dissuade Alfio from vendetta, but all in vain. Alfio challenges Turidu to a duel and kills him.
