Stanislao Gastaldon the music publisher Sonzogno announced a competition for one-act operas, Gastaldon decided to enter with "Mala Pasqua!", a setting of Giovanni Verga's popular short story (and later play), "Cavalleria rusticana". Another young composer, Pietro Mascagni, entered the same contest with his opera "Cavalleria rusticana", also based on Verga's story. Gastaldon withdrew his work early in the competition when he received an offer from Sonzogno's rival, Ricordi, to publish it and arrange a premiere at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. He expanded the opera to three acts, and "Mala Pasqua!" premiered on April 9, 1890 to modest success. Mascagni's opera eventually
Luis Lima Luis Lima Luis Lima (born 12 September 1948 in Córdoba, Argentina) is an Argentine operatic tenor, who studied in Buenos Aires under Carlos Guichandut and in Sicily under Gina Cigna. He made his opera debut in 1974, in Lisbon, in "Cavalleria rusticana", and since then sang in seventy-seven performances at the Metropolitan Opera (from 1977 to 2001) in nine different roles, starting with Alfredo Germont in "La traviata". He has also sung with the New York City Opera (1978–79, debuting in "Madama Butterfly"), at the Teatro alla Scala (first appearing in "Lucia di Lammermoor", 1977) and the Royal Opera House,