Verga’s Cavalleria Rusticana (1880)
Read Giovanni Verga’s original Sicilian novella in Italian alongside Targioni-Tozzetti and Menasci’s 1890 libretto.
Libretti & Literary Sources
Complete Italian libretti, selected vocal scenes, archival facsimile scans, and literary origins across Mascagni’s dramatic works
Featured Primary Sources & Editions
Coppée’s Le Passant Facsimile (1889)
Inspect the illustrated French edition of François Coppée’s one-act play that inspired Mascagni’s Renaissance idyll Zanetto.
D’Annunzio’s Parisina (4 Acts, 1913)
Explore Gabriele D’Annunzio’s complete four-act verse tragedy with chapter navigation and premiere stage designs.
Pinotta Original 1932 Libretto Scan
Zoom into every page of the original printed libretto from Mascagni’s 1932 Sanremo premiere in the Deep Zoom document reader.
| On-Site Texts & Scans | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cavalleria rusticana Melodramma in one act | 1890 | Guido Menasci, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti | Cavalleria rusticana, play (1884) and novella (1880, from Vita dei campi) by Giovanni Verga. Read the original Italian short story. | |
| Ave Maria Sacred vocal adaptation | 1890 | Pietro Mazzoni (Italian text) | Lyric prayer adapted to the Intermezzo sinfonico from Cavalleria rusticana. | |
| L'amico Fritz Commedia lirica in three acts | 1891 | P. Suardon (Nicola Daspuro), with additions by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti | L’Ami Fritz, three-act comedy (1876) by French writers Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian, after their novel (1864) of the same name. | |
| I Rantzau Opera in four acts | 1892 | Guido Menasci, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti | Les Rantzau, four-act play (1882) by Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian, adapted from their novel Les Deux Frères (1873). | |
| Guglielmo Ratcliff Tragedia in four acts | 1895 | Andrea Maffei (Italian verse translation) | Wilhelm Ratcliff (1822), one-act tragic ballad-drama by Heinrich Heine, set directly by Mascagni in Andrea Maffei’s Italian verse translation. | |
| Silvano Dramma marinaresco in two acts | 1895 | Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti | Not yet online | Romain d’Étretat (1855), maritime novel by French author Alphonse Karr. |
| Zanetto Scene liriche in one act | 1896 | Guido Menasci, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti | Le Passant (1869), one-act verse comedy by François Coppée. Browse the illustrated 1889 French facsimile. | |
| A Giacomo Leopardi Symphonic-vocal poem | 1898 | Giacomo Leopardi (poetic verses) | Selected verses from Giacomo Leopardi’s Canti (including Il sabato del villaggio, A Silvia, and L’infinito), composed for the Recanati centenary. | |
| Iris Melodramma in three acts | 1898 | Luigi Illica | Original symbolist poema lirico by Luigi Illica set in legendary Japan. | |
| Le maschere Commedia lirica e giocosa (prologue & three acts) | 1901 | Luigi Illica | Original comedy by Luigi Illica celebrating the traditional Italian commedia dell’arte masks (Arlecchino, Colombina, Pantalone, Tartaglia, Brighella). | |
| Amica Poème dramatique in two acts | 1905 | Paul Bérel (Paul de Choudens); Italian translation by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti | Original French dramatic poem by Paul Bérel (pseudonym of publisher Paul de Choudens); Mascagni’s only opera composed to a French libretto. | |
| Isabeau Leggenda drammatica in three parts | 1911 | Luigi Illica | Dramatic legend by Luigi Illica freely inspired by the medieval English tale of Lady Godiva. | |
| Parisina Tragedia lirica in four acts | 1913 | Gabriele D'Annunzio | Parisina (1912), four-act verse tragedy written expressly for Mascagni by Gabriele D’Annunzio (drawing on fifteenth-century Este chronicles and Byron’s 1816 poem). | |
| Lodoletta Dramma lirico in three acts | 1917 | Giovacchino Forzano | Two Little Wooden Shoes (1874), sentimental novel by English writer Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé). | |
| Rapsodia satanica Poema cinema-musicale | 1917 | Fausto Maria Martini (poetic text) | Film scenario by Alberto Fassini with verse poem by Fausto Maria Martini for Nino Oxilia’s silent film (a feminine reimagining of the Faust legend). | |
| Sì Operetta in three acts | 1919 | Carlo Lombardo (verses by Arturo Franci) | Not yet online | Three-act operetta libretto by impresario Carlo Lombardo (with lyric verses by Arturo Franci), after French vaudeville models. |
| Il piccolo Marat Libretto in three acts | 1921 | Giovacchino Forzano (with Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti) | Not yet online | Les Noyades de Nantes (1912) by G. Lenôtre (Théodore Gosselin) and Victor Martin’s Sous la Terreur (1906), set in Nantes during the Reign of Terror. |
| Pinotta Idillio in two acts | 1932 | Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti | Expanded into two acts by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti from Mascagni’s recovered 1881 student cantata In filanda (text by Alfredo Soffredini). | |
| Nerone Commedia lirica in three acts (four tableaux) | 1935 | Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti | Nerone (1871), five-act historical verse drama by Roman playwright Pietro Cossa (1830–1881). |