Cavalleria rusticana sensation, with Mascagni taking 40 curtain calls and winning the First Prize. Although Mascagni had started writing two other operas earlier ("Pinotta", premiered in 1932, and "Guglielmo Ratcliff", premiered in 1895), "Cavalleria rusticana" was his first opera to be completed and performed. It remains the best known of his fifteen operas and one operetta ("Sì" ). Apart from "Cavalleria rusticana", only "Iris" and "L'amico Fritz" have remained in the standard repertory, with "Isabeau" and "Il piccolo Marat" on the fringes of the Italian repertoire. Its success has been phenomenal ever since its first performance. At the time of Mascagni's death
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