Giovanni Verga in the Fields"), including ""Fantasticheria"" ("Daydreaming"), ""La lupa"" ("The She-wolf"), ""Jeli il pastore"" ("Jeli the Shepherd"), ""Pentolaccia"" ("The Plaything"), and "Rosso Malpelo", most of which were about rural Sicily, came out. It also included ""Cavalleria rusticana"" ("Rustic Chivalry"), which he adapted for the theatre and later formed the basis for several opera librettos including Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" and Gastaldon's "Mala Pasqua!". Verga's short story, ""Malaria"", was one of the first literary depictions of the disease malaria. He then embarked on a projected series of five novels, but only completed two, "I Malavoglia" and "Mastro-don Gesualdo" (1889), the second of which
Ildikó Komlósi Naxos at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; Cavalleria Rusticana (Santuzza) and Carmen at the Arena in Verona; Aida at the Frankfurt Oper, at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan under the baton of Riccardo Chailly for the opening of the 2006–2007 season; Cavalleria Rusticana and Oedipus Rex (Jocasta) at the Teatro Regio in Turin; Verdi’s Requiem in Cagliari; Cavalleria Rusticana at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and in Naples; Bluebeard's Castle in Bilbao; Verdi’s Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski in London; Dvorak’s Requiem at the Gran Teatre del