Verismo, which in this context means “realism,” is the name for a movement that arose in opera near the end of the 19th century. Composers of versimo operas chose realistic settings, often depicting the struggles and drama of common people. In this they were reacting against the grandiosity and mythological focus of Romanticism. Verismo, like Impressionism, is part of the transition from the Romantic to the Modern era and could justifiably be studied as part of either period. Just as we studied Beethoven in the Classical era and Schubert in the Romantic era, we will examine verismo opera (and one of its greatest practitioners, Giacomo Puccini) in our study of the Romantic period and Impressionism in our study of the 20th century.  In opera, Verismo (meaning “realism,” from Italian vero, meaning “true”) was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano and Giacomo Puccini.

Generally verismo operas focused not on gods, mythological figures, or kings and queens, but on the average contemporary man and woman and their problems, generally of a sexual romantic, or violent nature.” However, two of the small handful of verismo operas still performed today take historical subjects: Puccini’s Tosca and Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. “Musically, verismo composers consciously strove for the integration of the opera’s underlying drama with its music.” These composers abandoned the “recitative and set-piece structure” of earlier Italian opera. Instead, the operas were “through-composed,” with few breaks in a seamlessly integrated sung text. While verismo operas may contain arias that can be sung as stand-alone pieces, they are generally written to arise naturally from their dramatic surroundings, and their structure is variable, being based on text that usually does not follow a regular strophic format.

The verismo opera style featured music that required singers to more declamatory singing, in contrast to the traditional tenets of elegant, 19th century bel canto singing that had preceded the movement. Opera singers adapted to the demands of the new style. The most extreme exponents of verismo vocalism sang habitually in a vociferous fashion, often forfeiting legato to focus on the passionate aspect of the music. They would ‘beef up’ the timbre of their voices, use excessive amounts of vocal fold mass on their top notes, and often employ a conspicuous vibrato in order to accentuate the emotionalism of their ardent interpretations.

Such great early-20th century international operatic stars as Enrico Caruso, Rosa Ponselle and Titta Ruffo developed vocal techniques which harmoniously managed to combine fundamental bel canto precepts with a more ‘modern,’ straightforward mode of ripe-toned singing when delivering verismo music, and their example has influenced operatic performers down to this day (see Scott).

“>http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/NYCO/butterfly/verismo.html</

Puccini –  Madame Butterfly

Madama Butterfly (1904), set in the contemporary world, deals with the disreputable attitude of an American sailor Pinkerton, toward his Japanese bride, and so undercuts the superficially “exotic” world that it inhabits, ending with a geisha girl–perhaps the epitome of glamor — committing suicide on stage.

In the aria “Un Bel Di”   Butterfly  anticipates the return of her love, Pinkerton  –  expressing her love for him and her her fantasies visioning his return. But Pinkerton  has no intention of  returning to his bride.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/vccs-tcc-mus121-1/wp-admin/post.php?post=597&action=edi

Puccini – La Boheme 

La bohème is  in four acts, composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger. The world premiere performance  was conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio,   In 1946, fifty years after the opera’s premiere, Toscanini conducted a performance of it on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

La Bohème  depicts four impoverished artists living and working in a sordid garret in Paris, and an equally poverty-stricken young girl who does embroidery for a living. (These lives are, however, romanticised in a way that is alien to true verismo).

This rendition of “O soave fanciulla” is excitinig , powerful,  touching and sentimental.

Check the power point: at the end of this topic. Slides  16-25 relate to Puccini and Vierismo.      https://courses.lumenlearning.com/vccs-tcc-music-rford/wp-admin/post.php?post=1483&action=edit