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
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