Iris (opera)

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Operas by Pietro Mascagni

Cavalleria rusticana (1890)
L'amico Fritz (1891)
I Rantzau (1892)
Guglielmo Ratcliff (1895)
Silvano (1895)
Iris (1898)
Le maschere (1901)
Amica (1905)
Isabeau (1911)
Parisina (1913)
Lodoletta (1917)
Il piccolo Marat (1921)
Nerone (1935)
v • d • e

Iris is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni to an original Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. Its first performance was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 22 November 1898.

The opera is through-composed and set in Japan during legendary times. (Mascagni's colleague and former roommate, Puccini, was present at the premiere; it is far from coincidental that his own next opera, Madama Butterfly, was also set in Japan.)

Though Mascagni's work is not standard repertory in America like Butterfly, Iris has always been popular in Europe, especially Italy. Two of Iris's most exquisite numbers are the tenor's serenade ("Apri la tua finestra") and the Hymn to the Sun ("Inno al Sole"). The Dances are also famous.

[edit] Main roles

[edit] Sources

  • Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
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