Opera After Verdi, the sentimental "realistic" melodrama of verismo appeared in Italy. This was a style introduced by Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" and Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" that came to dominate the world's opera stages with such popular works as Giacomo Puccini's "La bohème", "Tosca", and "Madama Butterfly". Later Italian composers, such as Berio and Nono, have experimented with modernism. The first German opera was "Dafne", composed by Heinrich Schütz in 1627, but the music score has not survived. Italian opera held a great sway over German-speaking countries until the late 18th century. Nevertheless, native forms would develop in spite of this
Ekaterina Vasilyeva (19th-century actress) Ekaterina Vasilyeva (19th-century actress) Ekaterina Nikolayevna Vasilyeva (, Lavrova (Лаврова), 16 August 1829 in Moscow, Russian Empire – 27 April 1877 in Bern, Switzerland) was a Russian stage actress. Born to the professional opera singers, Nikolai Lavrov and Darya Saburova, she debuted in 1845 in the Maly Theatre production of Eugène Scribe's "La chanoinesse" (translated into Russian as Девица-отшельница, A Maiden Hermit) as Gabriele, and a year later moved to Saint Petersburg where in 1847 she was invited to join the Alexandrinsky Theatre troupe. The 14 October 1863 premiere of Alexander Ostrovsky's "A Profitable Position" was given as a benefit