Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana / Zinka Milanov, Jussi Björling, Robert Merrill / Renato Cellini, RCA Victor Orchestra, Robert Shaw Chorale / The RCA Victor Opera Series / RCA Audio CD 1987 / 6510-2-RG

UPC 078635651027

Cavalleria rusticana (pronounced [kavalleˈriːa rustiˈkaːna]; 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 [it] and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on 17 May 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.

Jussi Bjoerling is the one who makes the magic happen in this Cavalleria Rusticana with a finely worked-out profile of Turiddu, as well as some matchless singing. Zinka Milanov also sings beautifully, but she will never convince anyone that she is a simple Sicilian peasant girl who has been seduced with a false promise of marriage, impregnated, and disdainfully abandoned by a tenor who hardly even bothers pretending to be nice. The rest of the cast comes across well--notably Robert Merrill--and Renato Cellini does a polished (too polished?) job on the podium. Herbert von Karajan's chief advantage in competition with this set is that his sound is technically much better. Cellini's big advantage (other than Bjoerling) is that you don't have to buy I Pagliacci to get Cavalleria Rusticana. --Joe McLellan

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