Love, jealousy, and death, all in a tight, pacy framework: Mascagni’s one-act works are a thrilling distillation of everything we love about opera.

With his attention to the lives of ordinary people, Mascagni provided the foundations for verismo, a movement that would define many Italian operas over the subsequent two decades.

Cavalleria rusticana may have swept the world before it after winning a competition for one-act operas in 1890, but Mascagni did not immediately leave the format behind after he had made his name.

This evening offers a rare opportunity to hear it alongside the follow-up piece, Silvano (1895), which took the same themes from the countryside to the coast, with atmospheric musical invocations of the sea and the moonlight.

Matthew Kofi Waldren makes a welcome return to the podium following his critically acclaimed debut with the ensemble for I due Foscari in 2024.

Concert performances in Italian with English surtitles.

4.15 pm: Pre-concert Talk
With Professor Alexandra Wilson (free to ticket-holders)