L'amico Fritz L'amico Fritz L'amico Fritz () is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, premiered in 1891 from a libretto by P. Suardon (Nicola Daspuro) (with additions by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti), based on the French novel "L'ami Fritz" by Émile Erckmann and Pierre-Alexandre Chatrian. While the opera enjoyed some success in its day and is probably Mascagni's most famous work after "Cavalleria rusticana", today it is performed far more rarely than "Cavalleria", which remains Mascagni's only enduringly popular work in America (though in Italy, "L'amico Fritz" and "Iris" are still in the active repertoire). The "Cherry Duet" between Fritz and Suzel
Cavalleria rusticana an LP, it is available on CD under several historical recording labels. A double-bill performance of "Cavalleria" and "Pagliacci" was transmitted as the first broadcast by New York City's Metropolitan Opera on 11 December 1910. Radio pioneer Lee de Forest talked Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the Met manager, into sending the program over the airwaves by using a backstage radio transmitter and a rooftop antenna, "using a long fishing pole for his mast." Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn were in the leading roles. Few listened. There were no radios. But public receivers had been set up in several well-advertised locations in New