Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) was an Italian composer primarily known for his 15 operas. He was successful during his lifetime, as both composer and conductor, and is primarily remembered today by his one-act operatic masterpiece 'Cavalleria Rusticana', composed in 1890.

"In July 1888 the Milanese music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition open to all young Italian composers who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. They were invited to submit a one-act opera which would be judged by a jury of five prominent Italian critics and composers. The best three would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno's expense. Mascagni heard about the competition only two months before the closing date and asked his friend Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, a poet and professor of literature at the Italian Royal Naval Academy in Livorno, to provide a libretto. The opera was finally submitted on the last day that entries would be accepted. In all, 73 operas were submitted, and on 5 March 1890, the judges selected the final three: Niccola Spinelli's Labilia, Vincenzo Ferroni's Rudello, and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana."

The opera is now often partnered with Leoncavallo's one-act opera 'I Pagliacci' and the instrumental Intermezzo has created a life of its own and has been arranged for many different instrumental ensembles.

Available as a printed edition or PDF file (please contact doublebass@tiscali.co.uk) and a new edition for double bass quartet will be published shortly.