Cavalleria rusticana on stage. They were invited to submit a one-act opera which would be judged by a jury of five prominent Italian critics and composers. The best three would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno's expense. Mascagni heard about the competition only two months before the closing date and asked his friend Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, a poet and professor of literature at the Italian Royal Naval Academy in Livorno, to provide a libretto. Targioni-Tozzetti chose "Cavalleria rusticana", a popular short story (and play) by Giovanni Verga, as the basis for the opera. He and his colleague Guido Menasci set about composing the
Ildikó Komlósi Naxos at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; Cavalleria Rusticana (Santuzza) and Carmen at the Arena in Verona; Aida at the Frankfurt Oper, at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan under the baton of Riccardo Chailly for the opening of the 2006–2007 season; Cavalleria Rusticana and Oedipus Rex (Jocasta) at the Teatro Regio in Turin; Verdi’s Requiem in Cagliari; Cavalleria Rusticana at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and in Naples; Bluebeard's Castle in Bilbao; Verdi’s Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski in London; Dvorak’s Requiem at the Gran Teatre del