Cavalleria rusticana it performed at the Teatro Costanzi, where it premiered on 9 April 1890. In the 1907 Sonzogno competition, Domenico Monleone submitted an opera based on the story, and likewise called "Cavalleria rusticana". The opera was not successful in the competition, but premiered later that year in Amsterdam and went on to a successful tour throughout Europe, ending in Turin. Sonzogno, wishing to protect the lucrative property which Mascagni's version had become, took legal action and successfully had Monleone's opera banned from performance in Italy. Monleone changed the opera ‘beyond recognition’, setting the music to a new libretto. In this form
Idloes Owen Wales Theatre, Cardiff. Owen as Musical Director conducted the first performance, "Cavalleria rusticana", which included the Welsh tenor Robert Tear who started his career as a schoolboy in this performance. In 1948 the Welsh National Opera became a limited company and established another centre in Swansea. In 1951 the company made its first tour of Wales. In January 1950 Idloes Owen invited an astute businessman Bill Smith a former secretary of the defunct Cardiff Grand Opera to be his partner to develop the potential of the new company. Smith immediately responded by booking the young Charles Mackerras as conductor to