Opera After Verdi, the sentimental "realistic" melodrama of verismo appeared in Italy. This was a style introduced by Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" and Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" that came to dominate the world's opera stages with such popular works as Giacomo Puccini's "La bohème", "Tosca", and "Madama Butterfly". Later Italian composers, such as Berio and Nono, have experimented with modernism. The first German opera was "Dafne", composed by Heinrich Schütz in 1627, but the music score has not survived. Italian opera held a great sway over German-speaking countries until the late 18th century. Nevertheless, native forms would develop in spite of this
Oreste Kirkop Oreste Kirkop Oreste Kirkop(Chircop) was born in Ħamrun (Malta) on 26 July 1923. He was the sixth child among the ten siblings of Jean Chircop and Fortunata Panzavecchia. He started to realise his singing capabilities while singing in the shelters during wartime. Afterwards he took lessons from Maltese tenor Nicolo Baldachino. Oreste made his operatic debut on 25 February 1945 as Turiddu in "Cavalleria Rusticana" at the Radio City Opera House in Ħamrun (Malta). In 1948, he met Maltese baritone Joseph Satariano who encouraged him to start an opera career in the UK. Between 1949 and 1950 he continued singing