ISBN: | 978-5-5144-5580-5 |
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Mala Pasqua! (Evil 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 April 9, 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 Carmela, but the basic plot and setting remain the same. Its title refers to the curse which Carmela places on Turiddu, the lover who had spurned her: "Mala Pasqua a te!" ("May you have an evil Easter!"). Following its Rome premiere Mala Pasqua! had a few more performances in Perugia and Lisbon, but it was completely eclipsed by the phenomenal success of Mascagni`s opera. After the 1891 Lisbon run it was not heard again until 2010 when it was given a semi-staged performance in Agrigento, Sicily.