View source for Verismo

{{Short description|Style of opera}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
[[File:GiacomoPuccini.jpg|thumb|[[Giacomo Puccini]], one of the composers most closely associated with ''verismo''.]]
[[File:Cavelleria Rusticana, scene from the 1890 premiere, Teatro Costanzi, Rome.jpg|thumb|''[[Cavelleria Rusticana]]'', considered the first ''Verismo'' opera]]
[[File:Pagliacci Original Score Cover.jpg|thumb|''[[Pagliacci]]'' is a famous ''Verismo'' opera]]

In [[opera]], {{langnf|it|'''verismo'''|realism}}, from {{lang|it|vero}}, meaning 'true', was a [[post-romanticism|post-Romantic]] operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as [[Pietro Mascagni]], [[Ruggero Leoncavallo]], [[Umberto Giordano]], [[Francesco Cilea]] and [[Giacomo Puccini]].

''Verismo'' as an operatic genre had its origins in an [[Verismo (literature)|Italian literary movement of the same name]]. This was in turn related to the international literary movement of [[naturalism (literature)|naturalism]] as practised by [[Émile Zola]] and others. Like [[naturalism (literature)|naturalism]], the ''verismo'' literary movement sought to portray the world with greater [[realism (arts)|realism]]. In so doing, Italian ''verismo'' authors such as [[Giovanni Verga]] wrote about subject matter, such as the lives of the poor, that had not generally been seen as a fit subject for literature.

== History ==
A short story by Verga called ''{{ill|Cavalleria rusticana (novella)|it|lt=Cavalleria rusticana}}'' ({{Langnf|it|none|Rustic Chivalry}}), then developed into a play by the same author, became the source for what is usually considered to be the first ''verismo'' opera: ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]'' by Mascagni, which premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Thus begun, the operatic genre of ''verismo'' produced a handful of notable works such as ''[[Pagliacci]]'', which premiered at Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, and Puccini's ''[[Tosca]]'' (premiering at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900). The genre peaked in the early 1900s, and lingered into the 1920s.<ref>"Verismo" in Stanley Sadie (ed.) ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians'', London: Macmillan/New York: Grove, 1980, vol. 19, p. 670, {{ISBN|1-56159-174-2}}</ref>

== Characteristics ==
In terms of subject matter, generally "verismo operas focused not on gods, mythological figures, or kings and queens, but on the average contemporary man and woman and their problems, generally of a sexual, romantic, or violent nature."<ref name="Schoell 2006">{{Cite book|title = The Opera of the Twentieth Century|last = Schoell|first = William|publisher = McFarland and Co., Inc.|year = 2006|isbn = 978-0-7864-2465-8|location = Jefferson North Carolina}}</ref> However, three of the small handful of ''verismo'' operas still performed today take historical subjects: Puccini's ''Tosca'', Giordano's ''[[Andrea Chénier]]'' and Cilea's ''[[Adriana Lecouvreur]]''. In ''Opera After the Zero Hour: The Problem of Tradition and the Possibility of Renewal in Postwar West Germany,'' the music historian Emily Richmond Pollock writes that verismo's musical language reflects an aesthetic that emphasizes "the power of moment-by-moment emotional expressiveness that requires harmonic and formal flexibility, muscular but relatively unornamented vocal lines, and a fully developed orchestration full of high-contrast timbres."<ref>{{Citation|last=Pollock|first=Emily Richmond|title=Rebuilding and Retrenchment: The Munich Nationaltheater and Werner Egk's Die Verlobung in San Domingo|date=31 October 2019|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190063733.001.0001/oso-9780190063733-chapter-7|work=Opera After the Zero Hour|pages=174–212|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/oso/9780190063733.003.0007|isbn=978-0-19-006373-3|access-date=7 January 2021|url-access=subscription}}</ref> "Musically, verismo composers consciously strove for the integration of the opera's underlying drama with its music." These composers abandoned the "recitative and set-piece structure" of earlier Italian opera. Instead, the operas were "through-composed", with few breaks in a seamlessly integrated sung text.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Opera Journeys' Guide: Opera at Movie Theaters – 2014–2015 Season|publisher = Opera Journeys Publishing|year = 2014|page = 33}}</ref> While ''verismo'' operas may contain arias that can be sung as stand-alone pieces, they are generally written to arise naturally from their dramatic surroundings, and their structure is variable, being based on text that usually does not follow a regular strophic format.

== Works ==
The most famous composers who created works in the ''verismo'' style were Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano and Francesco Cilea. There were, however, many other ''veristi'': [[Franco Alfano]], [[Alfredo Catalani]], [[Gustave Charpentier]] (''[[Louise (opera)|Louise]]''), [[Eugen d'Albert]] (''[[Tiefland (opera)|Tiefland]]''), [[Ignatz Waghalter]] (''Der Teufelsweg'' and ''Jugend''), [[Alberto Franchetti]], [[Franco Leoni]], [[Jules Massenet]] (''[[La Navarraise]]''), [[Licinio Refice]], [[Spyridon Samaras]], [[Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari]] (''[[I gioielli della Madonna]]''), and [[Riccardo Zandonai]].<ref>"Verismo" in Stanley Sadie (ed.) ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians'', London: Macmillan/New York: Grove, 1980, vol. 19, pp. 671–72, {{ISBN|1-56159-174-2}}</ref>

== Style confusion ==
There has long been some confusion over the meaning of the term ''verismo''. In addition to referring to operas written in a realistic style, ''verismo'' may also be used more broadly to refer to the entire output of the composers of the ''[[giovane scuola]]'' ("young school"), the generation of Italian composers who were active during the period that the ''verismo'' style was created.<ref name="The Autumn">{{cite book|last=Mallach|first=Alan|title=The Autumn of Italian Opera: From Verismo to Modernism, 1890–1915|year=2007|publisher=Northeastern University Press|location=Lebanon, NH |pages= 42 et seq}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Cio' che prepara e pensa Umberto Giordano|newspaper=La Stampa|date=6 February 1905}}. ''Verismo'' composer Umberto Giordano told an interviewer in 1905: "The meaning of these words (vero and ''verismo'') needs to be defined once and for all" ("Bisognerebbe adunque definire una buona volta il valore di questi vocaboli.")</ref> One author (Alan Mallach) has proposed the term "plebeian opera" to refer to operas that adhere to the contemporary and realistic subject matter for which the term ''verismo'' was originally coined. At the same time, Mallach questions the value of using a term such as ''verismo'', which is supposedly descriptive of the subject and style of works, simply to identify an entire generation's music-dramatic output.<ref name="The Autumn3">{{cite book|last = Mallach|first = Alan|title = The Autumn of Italian Opera: From Verismo to Modernism, 1890–1915|year = 2007|publisher = Northeastern University Press|location = Lebanon, NH |pages=42 et seq}}</ref> For most of the composers associated with ''verismo'', traditionally veristic subjects accounted for only some of their operas. For instance, Mascagni wrote a pastoral comedy (''[[L'amico Fritz]]''), a symbolist work set in Japan (''[[Iris (opera)|Iris]]''), and a couple of medieval romances (''[[Isabeau]]'' and ''[[Parisina (Mascagni)|Parisina]]''). These works are far from typical ''verismo'' subject matter, yet they are written in the same general musical style as his more quintessential veristic subjects. In addition, there is disagreement among [[musicology|musicologists]] as to which operas are ''verismo'' operas, and which are not. (Non-Italian operas are generally excluded). Giordano's ''[[Andrea Chénier]]'', Cilea's ''[[Adriana Lecouvreur]]'', Mascagni's ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]'', Leoncavallo's ''[[Pagliacci]]'',<ref name="The Autumn3" /> and Puccini's ''[[Tosca]]'' and ''[[Il tabarro]]''<ref name="Fisher, ed.2">{{cite book|editor-last = Fisher|editor-first = Burton D.|title = Puccini's Il Trittico|year = 2003|publisher = Opera Journeys Pub.|location = Miami|isbn = 0-9771455-6-5}}</ref> are operas to which the term ''verismo'' is applied with little or no dispute. The term is sometimes also applied to Puccini's ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'' and ''[[La fanciulla del West]]''.<ref name="Carner &quot;Tosca&quot;2">{{cite book|last = Carner|first = Mosco|title = Giacomo Puccini, Tosca|url = https://archive.org/details/giacomopuccinito00carn|url-access = limited|year = 1985|publisher = Cambridge University Press|location = Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]|isbn = 0-521-22824-7|edition = Reprinted|page = [https://archive.org/details/giacomopuccinito00carn/page/n16 6]}}</ref> Because only four ''verismo'' works not by Puccini continue to appear regularly on stage (the aforementioned ''Cavalleria rusticana'', ''Pagliacci'', ''Andrea Chénier'' and ''Adriana Lecouvreur''), Puccini's contribution has had lasting significance to the genre.

Some authors have attempted to trace the origins of ''verismo'' opera to works that preceded ''Cavalleria rusticana'', such as [[Georges Bizet]]'s ''[[Carmen]]'', or [[Giuseppe Verdi]]'s ''[[La traviata]]''.<ref name="Schoell 2006"/> In fact, much of Verdi's style is accredited with influencing verismo-style opera. His use of suspense is reflective of a move towards greater intensity at the climax of arias.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Giger |first=Andreas |title=Verdi and the French Aesthetic: Verse, Stanza, and Melody in Nineteenth-Century Opera |date=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-34954-3 |edition=Online-Ausg |location=Cambridge |pages=173}}</ref> [[Modest Mussorgsky|Modest Moussorgsky]]'s ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' should not be ignored as an antecedent of ''verismo'', especially because of Moussorgsky's focus on peasants, alongside princes and other aristocracy and church leaders, and his deliberate relating of the natural speech inflexions of the libretto to the rhythms of the sung music, different from, for example, Tchaikovsky's use of Pushkin's verse as a libretto.

==''Verismo'' singers==
The ''verismo'' opera style featured music that showed signs of more declamatory singing, in contrast to the traditional tenets of elegant, 19th-century [[bel canto]] singing that had preceded the movement, which were purely based on markings in the written music of authors preceding this "era". Opera singers adapted to the demands of the "new" style. The most extreme exponents of ''verismo'' vocalism sang habitually in a vociferous fashion, were focusing on the passionate aspect of music. They would 'beef up' the timbre of their voices, use greater amounts of vocal fold mass on their top notes, and often employ a conspicuous [[vibrato]] in order to accentuate the emotionalism of their ardent interpretations.

Some prominent practitioners of ''verismo'' singing during the movement's Italian lifespan (1890 to circa 1930) include the sopranos [[Eugenia Burzio]], [[Lina Bruna Rasa]] and [[Bianca Scacciati]], the tenors [[Aureliano Pertile]], [[Cesar Vezzani]] and Amadeo Bassi, and the baritones [[Mario Sammarco]] and [[Eugenio Giraldoni]]. Their method of singing can be sampled on numerous 78-rpm [[Gramophone record|gramophone]] recordings.

Great early-20th century international operatic stars [[Enrico Caruso]], [[Rosa Ponselle]] and [[Titta Ruffo]] developed vocal techniques which harmoniously managed to combine fundamental bel canto precepts with a more 'modern', straightforward mode of ripe-toned singing when delivering ''verismo'' music, and their example has influenced operatic performers down to this day (see Scott {{who|date=December 2022}} {{what|date=December 2022}}).

==See also==
{{Portal|opera}}
*[[Verismo (literature)]]
*[[Verismo (painting)]]
*[[American verismo|American Verismo]]
*[[Italian opera]]

==Notes and references==
{{reflist}}

{{Opera genres}}

[[Category:Opera genres]]
[[Category:Italian opera terminology]]