Giacomo Puccini line. "Verismo" is a style of Italian opera that began in 1890 with the first performance of Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana", peaked in the early 1900s, and lingered into the 1920s. The style is distinguished by realistic – sometimes sordid or violent – depictions of everyday life, especially the life of the contemporary lower classes. It by and large rejects the historical or mythical subjects associated with Romanticism. "Cavalleria rusticana", "Pagliacci", and "Andrea Chénier" are uniformly considered to be "verismo" operas. Puccini's career as a composer is almost entirely coincident in time with the "verismo" movement. Only his "Le Villi" and
Sylvie Brunet title-role of "Carmen" at the Zürich Opera House, the role of Suzuki in "Madame Butterfly" at the Paris Opera directed by Bob Wilson, Madame de Croissy in "Dialogues des Carmélites" at the Paris Opera and the Zürich Opera, Santuzza in "Cavalleria Rusticana" at the Séville Opera, Marguerite in "La Damnation de Faust" in Zürich and eventually the title role in Meyerbeer's "l'Africaine" at the Opéra national du Rhin. Noticed by Sergio Segalini, she is invited to sing Azucena in Verdi's "Il trovatore" at the Martina Franca Festival. On this occasion, an Italian critic wrote of her: "Verdi has finally found