Siciliana another set of variations by Brahms, the orchestral Variations on a Theme by Haydn (1873), the 7th variation also takes the form of a siciliana. The second of Moritz Moszkowski's "Trois Morceaux poétiques", Op. 42 (1887), is a Siciliano. Hélène's aria, "Merci, jeunes amies" ("Thank you, beloved friends") from Verdi's opera "Les vêpres siciliennes" is another example of a siciliana, suited to its setting, and is referred to as such in the score, even though it is popularly called a bolero. The opening aria of Mascagni's masterpiece "Cavalleria rusticana" is the Siciliana "O Lola". Ernest Chausson composed a sicilienne as
Cavalleria rusticana in Chicago on 30 September 1891. The opera premiered in New York on 1 October 1891, with two rival performances on the same day: an afternoon performance at the Casino, directed by Rudolph Aronson, and an evening performance at the Lenox Lyceum, directed by Oscar Hammerstein. The opera received its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera on 30 December 1891 in a double bill with a fragment of Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice", and has since received over 700 performances there. Before the action takes place, the young villager Turiddu had returned from military service to find that his fiancée Lola