Giacomo Puccini line. "Verismo" is a style of Italian opera that began in 1890 with the first performance of Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana", peaked in the early 1900s, and lingered into the 1920s. The style is distinguished by realistic – sometimes sordid or violent – depictions of everyday life, especially the life of the contemporary lower classes. It by and large rejects the historical or mythical subjects associated with Romanticism. "Cavalleria rusticana", "Pagliacci", and "Andrea Chénier" are uniformly considered to be "verismo" operas. Puccini's career as a composer is almost entirely coincident in time with the "verismo" movement. Only his "Le Villi" and
Audrey Babcock the Florentine Opera. "Carmen" was her European debut in 2010 at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. In May 2014, she sang "Carmen" with the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra. Audrey Babcock Audrey Babcock is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer who has performed in many opera houses throughout the world. She performed the Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Washington Concert Opera. Babcock sang the role of Maddalena in Verdi's "Rigoletto" for Boston Lyric Opera in March 2014. She sang in the first professional staging of Daniel Crozier's opera "With Blood, With Ink" in April 2014 at the Fort Worth Opera. Babcock has frequently