Opera Scotland

Cavalleria Rusticana 1893Carl Rosa Opera Company

Read more about the opera Cavalleria Rusticana

The 21 performances of Rustic Chivalry given in 1892 had clearly not exhausted the enthusiasm felt by Scottish audiences, so a further thirteen appeared in 1893. The only problem remained what to use to complete the evening. Single acts of popular operas were now completely rejected. The management first tried repeats of the previous year's couplings, both Djamileh and L'elisir d'amore. The most frequent partner, however, was Mascagni's follow-up, L'amico Fritz, seen as short for a full evening but not quite right as a make-weight. But in November the company brought two more one-acters playing together - Mascagni's I Rantzau followed by Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. It would not be long before the historically successful combination of 'Cav and Pag' would be formed.

Whatever other work Cavalleria was paired with, it is clear that the company now had a number of singers able to portray the leading roles as required. The cast for the matinee of May 13 was advertised as the team that had performed recently at Windsor.

A programme survives in the Mitchell Library giving the cast for the performance of Thursday 23 November