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Un pensiero a San Francisco
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Mascagni in San Francisco
The story of a Happy Ending

Reproduced with the kind permission of the San Francisco Opera .

Mascagni on His Way to America (1902)

"Here they call me the composer of Cavalleria Rusticana. [...] It damages my reputation as a musician to be known only as the man who wrote the piece with that intermezzo", lamented Pietro Mascagni in an interview for the San Francisco Examiner in February 1903.

One century later, Mascagni is still recognized almost exclusively as the composer of Cavalleria Rusticana, the opera that won him instant worldwide fame after its premiere in 1890. Modern opera-goers may find it difficult to believe that during a career that spanned over sixty years of composing, conducting, touring, teaching, writing, and fighting for Italian music, Mascagni produced fourteen other operas, one operetta, songs, and even film music. They may find it even harder to believe that he was once called the "foremost living composer of opera".

But the historical accounts do not leave room for doubt. In 1902, at age 39, Mascagni was the unchallenged leader of the young Italian school of composers. Since Cavalleria Rusticana, his triumphs in Italy and abroad had been unmatched by any living musician. He was the author of seven operas in addition to Cavalleria Rusticana, including the popular L'amico Fritz (1891) and Iris (1898). An experienced conductor of his and other composers' works, he had been on the podium at the premieres of all his operas since Guglielmo Ratcliff in 1895, a tradition he would maintain until Nerone in 1935.

In spite of prior solicitations, it was not until August 1902 that Mascagni signed a contract for a North American tour. The deal with the New York-based brothers Mittenthal called for a 15-week, $60,000 engagement, during which he was to conduct Cavalleria Rusticana, Guglielmo Ratcliff, Zanetto and Iris in several American cities.

Mascagni set foot in New York on October 4, 1902, after having spent little more than a month assembling orchestra and singers. Four weeks later the orchestra was on strike and the Mittenthal brothers were filing a lawsuit against the composer, who was arrested in Boston. Greedy management, hasty preparation, Mascagni's strong temper and some bad luck had quickly led to the disintegration of the tour.

Mascagni in America (1902 or 1903)

Under new management, a reduced company made it to Chicago at the end of December, where the composer was sued again. Tired and ill, Mascagni paid the remaining musicians out of his own pocket so that they could return home. Having decided to stay in the country until the Mittenthal case was solved and his name cleared, he remained in Chicago until he accepted the invitation of San Francisco manager Will Greenbaum. ¹

On the morning of February 7, 1903, Mascagni arrived in the city accompanied by his wife Lina. The local press immediately showed unreserved enthusiasm for the composer's unexpected visit. The Bulletin published a front-page article on the very day of this arrival, and the following day the Examiner followed with an interview. Over the course of Mascagni's stay, W. R. Hearst's leading newspaper was to regularly publish, under the pen of its drama critic Ashton Stevens, full-page articles lavishly illustrated with drawings and photos of the composer and his wife. Such trivia as a mention that Mr. Greenbaum had to translate Mrs. Mascagni's laundry list into English was deemed worthy of publication with illustration. Mascagni's appearance, habits and colorful personality were discussed at length. He was pictured smoking, smiling, waving, playing the piano, and conducting.

The first concert at the Alhambra Theater on February 17 was a triumph. The critic was unanimously positive: "His interpretation of the music carries his initial audience by storm", trumpeted the Chronicle. Tchaikovsky's Pathétique symphony and Mascagni's own Hymn of the Sun, the opening piece of his Japanese opera Iris, generated the highest praise from the critic, while the eternal Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana conquered the audience. The repertoire also included pieces by Rossini and Schumann, as well as other Mascagni compositions. Commenting on the programs of his symphonic concerts, the composer said: "[...] my principal desire is to show that [...] I can interpret my own music. I [also] want to show my audiences that I am broadminded enough to be able to comprehend and interpret the works of other composers, and particularly the classics."

Un pensiero a San Francisco (February 20, 1903)

Two days later, the second concert generated even more excitement. This time Mascagni conducted works by Wagner, Goldmark's second symphony, and more of his own works including, by popular demand, the Hymn of the Sun. The Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana caused an unbelievable frenzy: "The women of San Francisco went hysterical over Pietro Mascagni yesterday afternoon", reported the Examiner, "five hundred women turned into Jones street and stood at the large door, lined up by the police, waiting for a glimpse of his muffled figure."

Such a reception did not leave the composer cold. On February 20, 1903, he composed a short fragment for piano entitled Un pensiero a San Francisco (A Thought for San Francisco), published the following day: "Never before has a great composer written music in this city", declared Stevens, "Mascagni, in joyous mood, makes this message for people of his own heart in universal language of melody for those who have made him forgetful of troubles under these blue skies."

The following Sunday afternoon, Mascagni conducted Rossini's Stabat Mater at a theater packed with an audience of 3,000. The work was performed with a local chorus of 200 members, for which recruiting had started during the week preceding Mascagni's arrival. On the evening of the same day, a popular concert took place at the Mechanics' Pavilion, with an attendance of 4,000. Those numbers contrasted with the sometimes half-filled concert halls of the first part of the tour.

Mascagni in San Francisco (February 1903)

Dinners and banquets in Mascagni's honor, including one at the Bohemian Club, of which he was named an honorary member, appear to have left enough time to prepare a series of nine performances of Cavalleria Rusticana at the Tivoli Opera-House over a period of two weeks. Those performances were not accompanied, as is the custom today, with Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, but with orchestral works as well as the Hymn of the Sun, complete with Japanese setting. The first performance was greeted again with uncompromised enthusiasm: "No other leader has ever been bravoed and boot-thundered and hand-crashed by San Francisco as Mascagni was last night [...]. Greeks and Latins and Huns and Dutchman and Englanders and Native Sons and Daughters [...] experienced that delirium which we have come to call Mascagni-madness. [...] Mascagni made history for an institution that for twenty-two years has been the most faithful teacher in the West. He has given the Tivoli a tradition that will last." Had the Tivoli and much of San Francisco not been destroyed in the infamous 1906 earthquake, this prediction may have become true.

On March 20, a few days after the last of the Tivoli performances, a grand farewell concert took place, during which Mascagni was presented with a watch and other gifts from the manager and the performers. San Francisco Mayor Schmitz in person addressed the composer and the audience. Reporting on the importance of the event, Stevens commented: "the greatest of living opera composers had to come to the Golden Gate to discover America."

Mascagni's final concert in San Francisco (and North America) occurred a few days later, with the purpose of raising funds for a monument to Verdi in the city. With the news that the Mittenthal lawsuit had just been settled in his favor, the composer left San Francisco on March 27, 1903, not without having signed the last autographs and sent these words to the press: "Through the kindness of your paper I also beg to thank the good people of San Francisco for their continued exhibit of sympathy and hearty reception". The "Mascagni season", as the San Francisco Chronicle called it, was over for "the only successful audience for Mascagni in the United States". Less than a week later the composer and his wife were boarding the Savoie in New York, on their way back to Italy.

In spite of promises that Mascagni would come back the following year, the 1902-1903 tour was to remain his first and last North American visit. But the audience for this performance of Cavalleria Rusticana can dream for a moment that Pietro Mascagni, the great opera composer, is back to the city, exclaiming as he did a few days after his arrival in February 1903: "The sunshine is so good that my heart is warm and I am happy again."

1. For more information about the 1902-1903 tour, consult Mallach, Alan. The Mascagni Tour of 1902 (An Italian Composer Confronts the American Musical World), in Opera Quarterly Volume 7, Number 4, Winter 1990/91, pp. 13-37, Duke University Press, Durham 1990.