Pietro Mascagni

Pietro Mascagni was born in 1863, in Livorno, Italy. His father who was a baker, hoped that Pietro would become a lawyer, however Pietro had other ideas. He wanted to be a musician and persuaded his father to send him to the Milan Conservatoire, where he studied for three years. He became very good at composition as well as gaining a knowledge of all musical instruments, this gave him skills as a conductor as well as a composer.

His most famous opera "Cavalleria Rusticana" was composed in 1890. At the time he had showed it to a friend, who called it "rubbish". However, Pietro did not believe him and entered it into a competition for which it won first prize. It is a one act opera and is performed many times today. In 1891, he composed "L'amico Fritz" which became well known throughout Italy. His other famous opera composed in 1898, was "Iris". At the time it was performed more times than "Cavalleria Rusticana". Today it is not performed that often. He composed many other operas and operettas but most are not performed today.

On the 2nd August 1945 in Rome, Pietro Mascagni died. The funeral was held two days later, however the Italian authorities were not present. Then in 1951, his remains were removed from Rome and transferred to his birth place, Livorno, where he had an official homage.