Frustrated, Turiddu seduced Santuzza and even proposed, but that made Lola jealous, and now Turiddu has deserted Santuzza and taken up with Lola. Turiddu, we learn, was engaged to Lola, but then he enlisted, and by the time he returned, Lola had married Alfio. But as the other characters - Turiddu’s mother, Lucia (Nina Yoshida Nelsen) the young woman Santuzza (Michelle Johnson) the carter Alfio (Arrey) - appear in the village square, we realize this is not going to be a blessed Easter. We first hear Turiddu (Adam Diegel) singing an aubade to a woman we imagine to be his sweetheart, Lola (Chelsea Basler) he says that Paradise will not be Paradise unless she is there. The action of “Cavalleria rusticana” is compressed into a single Easter Sunday in a Sicilian village. Arrey was so commanding, so welcoming, so heart-on-sleeve, it seemed the show could hardly fail. A one-act piece running just 70 minutes, “Cavalleria” is often part of a double bill with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.” Here it’s on its own, but Mascagni’s score is so rich, and the scenario is so dramatic, 70 minutes feels like a full evening.Īnd Friday there was a bonus: Baritone Javier Arrey opened the evening by singing the Prologue to “Pagliacci,” in which Tonio invites the audience to enjoy the upcoming show. The Metropolitan Opera in New York has given it more than 700 performances. “Cavalleria rusticana” was a hit from the start: By the time of Mascagni’s death, in 1945, it had been presented over 14,000 times in Italy alone.

Cavalleria rusticana boston lyric opera