Mala Pasqua! Mala Pasqua! Mala Pasqua! (Bad Easter!) is an opera in three acts composed by Stanislao Gastaldon to a libretto by Giovanni Domenico Bartocci-Fontana. The libretto is based on Giovanni Verga's play, "Cavalleria rusticana" ("Rustic Chivalry") which Verga had adapted from his short story of the same name. "Mala Pasqua!" premiered on 9 April 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, six weeks before Pietro Mascagni's opera "Cavalleria rusticana" which was also based on Verga's play. Bartocci-Fontana's libretto adds some elements that were not in Verga's original and expands on others. The name of the Santuzza character was also changed to
Seymour Schwartzman he would reprise in 1969 for San Francisco Opera and in 1971 for Connecticut Opera. Schwartzman had also appeared at San Francisco Opera as Giorgio Germont in "La traviata" (1967), Tonio in "Pagliacci" (1967), and Rigoletto (1968). Although he primarily performed at New York City Opera, Schwartzman also made regular appearances with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company between 1969 and 1973, singing Alfio in "Cavalleria rusticana", Valentin in "Faust", David in "L'Amico Fritz", Sharpless in "Madame Butterfly", High Priest of Dagon in "Samson et Dalila", and Giorgio Germont in "La traviata". His performances with other opera companies included the Grand