Verismo (music) of the poor, that had not generally been seen as a fit subject for literature. A short story by Verga called "Cavalleria rusticana" (), then developed into a play by the same author, became the source for what is usually considered to be the first "verismo" opera: "Cavalleria rusticana" by Mascagni, which premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Thus begun, the operatic genre of "verismo" produced a handful of notable works such as "Pagliacci", which premiered at Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, and Puccini's "Tosca" (premiering at the Teatro Costanzi in
Sonia Theodoridou Corinna in "Il viaggio à Reims", Giulietta in "I Capuleti e i Montecchi", the title role in "Maria Stuarda", Cleopatra in "Giulio Cesare", Jenny in "Mahagonny" and Santuzza in "Cavalleria Rusticana". She has released two operatic CDs. Theodoridou has said in interviews that she enjoys singing the work of Jacques Brel, Kurt Weill, Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis and Édith Piaf as much as she enjoys opera. In 2010 she and her husband (conductor Theodore Orfanidis) created "Orchestra Mobile", an orchestra composed of renowned European musicians who can play in every city literally at once. In April 2011, she organised and