Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti

Italian librettist

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July 21, 2026

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Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti was an Italian librettist, a writer of opera texts. He is noted for his collaboration with composer Pietro Mascagni. Together, they created the one-act opera Cavalleria rusticana (1890), which was based on a Sicilian melodrama by Giovanni Verga. This opera became an instant success and is often performed alongside Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. Cavalleria rusticana is considered a prime example of verismo, an operatic style characterized by dramatic and often violent plots featuring everyday characters.12

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Cavalleria rusticana
Pietro Mascagni (Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci) that premiered in Rome on May 17, 1890. A short and intense work, it sets to music the Italian writer Giovanni Verga’s short story (1880) and play (produced 1884) of the same name, which tells a story of love, betrayal,…
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Pietro Mascagni (Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci) that premiered in Rome on May 17, 1890. A short and intense work, it sets to music the Italian writer Giovanni Verga’s short story (1880) and play (produced 1884) of the same name, which tells a story of love, betrayal,…
Read More