Iris - DVD

Following the runaway success of Cavalleria rusticana in 1890 at the age of 27, Mascagni did not rest on his laurels. In just a few years, he completed no less than five operas, including Iris, premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in 1898. Mascagni might well have taken for his own Puccini's famous quip, InchAgainst everything and everyone, make a work from melodyInch. And in Iris it is melodic invention which shows the composer's genius at it's greatest. A melody by Mascagni is usually long, smooth and Italian-sounding; and Iris is full-on melody all the way, particularly in such crowd-pleasers as Jor's Serenade, the InchHymn of the SunInch or the duet in Act II InchOh come al tuo sottile corpo s'aggiraInch, which includes the famous InchPiovraInch. Furtheremore, with a little effort listeners can identify what would be the various musical InchnumbersInch. In Iris, Mascagni is almost obsessively attentive to recitative and his exemplary flexibility at times recalls the sublime Inchconversation styleInch InchinventedInch by Puccini. The present production was recorded live at the Teatro Goldoni, Livorno, in December of 2017.