Mascagni's Visit

Many, many years ago an opera called Cavalleria Rusticana was composed. It proved, as a vaudevillian would say, an immediate wow. Its Intermezzo, written as a time-filler to cover the distribution and consumption of oranges between the acts, has been scored for every known combination of instruments, including flute and banjo, hand-organ, and the voice of John McCormack.

The young man in the checked Victorian suit who composed Cavalleria followed it up with many others. Practically every one of these was a comparative flop, Pietro Mascagni remains a one-opera man (which, after all, is better than a no-opera man, particularly if the one opera is a Cavalleria). It is now 22 years since Mascagni visited the U. S. He arrives here next month, together with the score of his new Piccolo Marat, which has been successful at La Scala in Milan and the San Carlo in Naples. There is a chance that a howling success here will make it his "second" opera.

Pietro will be accompanied by Giuseppe Radaelli, Agostino Capuzzo, Rino Dldrati, Irma Vigano, Maria Lecer-Casale, Adriana Boccanera, Enrico Nani, Francesco Novelli and Luciana Donaggio, singers. Signers Alfredo Salmaggi and Antonio Ferrara have already arrived as couriers and business managers.

They have made arrangements for the composer to conduct six open-air operatic performances in Brooklyn, and a two-weeks' "season" at the Manhattan Opera House.