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
John Keyes (tenor) "Otello", Samson in "Samson et Dalila", Tristan in "Tristan und Isolde", Turridu in "Cavalleria Rusticana", Walther in "Tannhäuser", and the title roles in "Don Carlos", "Lohengrin", Verdi's "Otello", "Parsifal", and "Siegfried". He is also active as a concert soloist, and is particularly known for his performances of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9". John Keyes (tenor) John Keyes is an American operatic tenor who specializes in the dramatic repertoire. After studies in Chicago, he apprenticed and performed at both the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Houston Grand Opera during the late 1980s. In 1990 he won an international singing