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Alan Mallach's Pietro Mascagni and His Operas

Pietro Mascagni and His Operas. By Alan Mallach. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2002. [378 p. ISBN 1555535240. $35]

In the commercial world, Pietro Mascagni’s music has been used to sell paper tissues, pasta sauce, Volkswagen cars and much, much more. In the cinema, his most famous opera, Cavalleria rusticana, provided the dramatic framework for the finale of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part III and, together with music from his lesser-known operas, played no small part in the success of Martin Scorsese’s cult classic Raging Bull. But although he composed sixteen major works for the stage, Mascagni is represented in the opera house almost exclusively by Cavalleria.

This tragic tale of love, betrayal and vengeance established a vogue for so-called verismo opera and it also earned Mascagni fame and fortune whilst still in his twenties. But even though he went on to complete more than one hundred and thirty compositions in a variety of genres, his career is usually viewed as one long downward slope which by the time of his death in 1945, had reached its lowest point.

He was certainly a precocious and undisciplined artist who juggled parallel careers as conductor, impresario, educator, orator and writer with varying degrees of success. He was a restless, competitive, opportunistic, pugnacious and litigious man; a loving, caring father and an unfaithful husband, yet one who remained loyal to both wife and mistress; a politically naive activist and a self-propagandist of mega proportions.

Several years ago, frustrated by the lack of English-language material on Mascagni, I began collating information for a reference work ¹. Had I known that Alan Mallach was working on a biography of the composer, I might have abandoned my project for something less demanding, but now that Mallach’s book has appeared, I am glad I did not throw in the towel.

This is not meant as a negative criticism of Mallach’s fine work. On the contrary, his expert literary skill and thorough research firmly places Mascagni in his historical and social milieu and charts the fluctuating fortunes of his career with admirable objectivity. Rather, I would suggest our works are complementary. If so inclined, the interested reader can turn to my book and find tabulated verification of Mascagni’s career in the chronologies and discography. Together, I hope these studies will be seen as a turning point for Mascagni scholarship in English.

Anyone embarking on a study of Mascagni must acknowledge the two monumental tomes compiled in 1964 by Mario Morini ². These will always provide the springboard for future research, along with the late David Stivender’s re-working of Mascagni’s “memoirs” ³ – a publication that for many opened an English language window on the composer – and the more recently published selection of Mascagni’s letters ⁴.

Mallach has had privileged access to this material as well as support and encouragement from descendents of the composer. Their trust in Mallach to set the record straight on a number of counts has not been misplaced. An unabashed admirer of the composer, he tells the story with an easy readability that will appeal to the general music lover and the specialist (no easy task). Each major work is placed in context with minimal disruption to the biographical flow. The genesis of every opera is discussed and very brief story outlines (they don’t amount to real synopses) are incorporated into the text.

Most importantly, Mascagni becomes a flesh and blood character and in Mallach’s hands we have no difficulty in understanding just how his background and experiences, both personal and professional, played such a significant part in the formation of this complex personality.

Conspiracy theorists may suggest that the neglect Mascagni has suffered since his death has no connection with his quality as a composer. They might reason that it is his association with the fascist regime and his acceptance of favoured treatment from Mussolini that has placed an unspoken embargo on performances of almost everything, apart from Cavalleria – a still highly profitable masterpiece.

Mallach’s biography ends logically, but abruptly, with the composer’s death in 1945, and I was left wanting an examination of Mascagni’s post-war reputation. Are the conspiracy theorists right? My own tentative enquiry to an Italian music librarian was greeted with the response “we don’t like to talk of him”. Can so much resentment still be buried in the Italian psyche, more than half a century on? Sadly, the answer must be “yes”.

Mallach is softer on Mascagni than Harvey Sachs had been in his study of music under the fascist regime of Mussolini ⁵, and he makes a convincing case for tolerance of the composer’s acceptance of the realities of life in Mussolini’s Italy. The alternative, exile, would have brought hardship for the army of relatives dependent on him for financial support, and would in any case have been unthinkable for a man whose sole artistic credo was the reassertion of the supremacy of Italian art.

Despite my enthusiasm for this book and my admiration for Mallach’s achievement, there are a few disappointments along the way. There is no detailed musical analysis of the operas, and some works such as Silvano, Zanetto and Nerone are passed over too quickly. There is still a niche in the market for something along the lines of Julian Budden’s study of the Verdi operas. Perhaps Mallach could be persuaded to contribute such a companion volume.

Valuable space is taken up with a survey of recordings that is unashamedly opinionated and almost always spot on. But I would have happily sacrificed this for detailed synopses of the operas, a personalia section and a chronological table of the significant events in Mascagni’s life and times for quick reference.

Lastly, the illustrations have a familiar look about them. A quick check revealed that almost all have appeared in other volumes, often with greater clarity. Given Mallach’s privileged access to archives and personal collections, it would have been refreshing to see some more unusual images of this most photographed and painted composer.

But these are minor quibbles. Mallach’s book triumphantly achieves what it sets out to do. It fills an enormous void in the literature and serves to educate and fascinate. I thought I knew the operas well, but time and again I was tempted by Mallach’s advocacy to revisit the scores and recordings.

Pietro Mascagni and his Operas deserves to be read by everyone interested in opera, but it should be compulsory reading for those who have, until now, been content to label the composer as a one-work wonder. At last Mascagni has been well served in the English language and those of us who consider him a grossly under-rated composer flecked with genius owe Mallach a huge debt of gratitude.

1. Flury, Roger, Pietro Mascagni: a bio-bibliography. Bio-bibliographies in music, no. 82 (Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 2001).
2. Mario Morini, ed., Pietro Mascagni (Milan: Casa Musicale Sonzogno di Piero Ostali, 1964). 2 v.
3. Pietro Mascagni, Mascagni: an Autobiography Compiled, Edited and Translated from the Original Sources by David Stivender (White Plains, N.Y.: Pro/Am Music Resources; London: Kahn & Averill, 1988).
4. Pietro Mascagni, Epistolario, compiled and edited by Mario Morini, Roberto Iovino and Alberto Paloscia. Hermes, Lucca Italy, 6 (Lucca: Libreria musicale italiana, 1996-1998). 2 v.
5. Harvey Sachs, Music in Fascist Italy (London: Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1987).