Cavalleria rusticana of "The Godfather Part III", which also featured a performance of the opera as a key part of the film's climax. Cavalleria rusticana Cavalleria rusticana (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic "verismo" operas, it premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called "Cav/Pag" double-bill with "Pagliacci" by Ruggero Leoncavallo. In July 1888 the Milanese
Herva Nelli del destino", Puccini's "Tosca" (conducted by Eugene Ormandy), and "Un ballo in maschera". In 1951, Nelli reappeared with the New York City Opera, in "Cavalleria rusticana" again, as well as "Aida"; the next year, she portrayed Maddalena de Coigny in Giordano's "Andrea Chénier" (in Theodore Komisarjevsky's production). With the San Francisco Opera, in 1951 and 1952, the soprano sang in "Otello", "La forza del destino" (with Robert Weede), "Aida" (with Mario Del Monaco), "Cavalleria rusticana", "Il trovatore", and "La bohème" (this last on tour to Los Angeles); in 1957, she returned for "Un ballo in maschera". With the Baltimore Civic