Cavalleria Rusticana, Italian for "rustic chivalry" is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called Cav/Pag double-bill with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.
Cast:
Santuzza - Giulietta Simionato
Turiddu - Mario del Monaco
Alfio - Cornell MacNeil
Mama Lucia - Anna di Stasio
Lola - Ana Raquel Satre
Tullio Serafin - conductor
DECCA 1959
Pagliacci is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It is the composer's only opera that is still widely performed. Opera companies have frequently staged Pagliacci with Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, a double bill known colloquially as "Cav and Pag".
Pagliacci premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on May 21, 1892 conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
Cast:
Canio - Mario del Monaco
Nedda - Gabriella Tucci
Tonio - Cornell MacNeil
Silvio - Renato Capecchi
Beppe - Piero di Palma
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli - conductor
DECCA 1960