I repeat: Looking back over the time during which this so-called veritism has held its orgies, 'Cavalleria Rusticana' seems almost classic.

Its music is highly spiced and tastes 'hot i' th' mouth,' but its eloquence is, after all, in its eager, pulsating, passionate melody--like the music which Verdi wrote more than half a century ago for the last act of 'Il Trovatore.' If neither Mascagni himself nor his imitators have succeeded in equalling it since, it is because they have thought too much of the external devices of abrupt and uncouth change of modes and tonalities, of exotic scales and garish orchestration, and too little of the fundamental element of melody which once was the be-all and end-all of Italian music.

Another fountain of gushing melody must be opened before 'Cavalleria rusticana' finds a successor in all things worthy of the succession.

Ingenious artifice, reflection, and technical cleverness will not suffice even with the blood and mud of the slums as a fertilizer." How Mascagni came to write his opera he has himself told us in a bright sketch of the early part of his life-history which was printed in the "Fanfulla della Domenica" of Rome shortly after he became famous.
Recounting the story of his struggle for existence after entering upon his career, he wrote:-- In 1888 only a few scenes (of "Ratcliff") remained to be composed; but I let them lie and have not touched them since.

The thought of "Cavalleria rusticana" had been in my head for several years.