The IX Festival di Sant’Efisio and the 2009 Opera and Ballet Season at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari continue with Cavalleria rusticana, melodrama in one act with libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, based on the drama of the same name by Giovanni Verga, music by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci, drama in a prologue and two acts with libretto and music by Ruggero Leoncavallo, in a production by the Teatro Massimo, Palermo.

Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are performed by two prestigious casts specialized in this repertoire, which alternate for the performances: Ildiko Komlosi/Sofia Mitropoulos (1st, 6th) (Santuzza), Sarah Maria Punga (Lola), Francesco Anile/Carlo Barricelli (1st, 3rd, 6th) (Turiddu), Gevorg Hakobyan/Rodrigo Esteves (1st, 6th) (Alfio), Cinzia De Mola (Lucia); Amarilli Nizza/Rossana Potenza (1st, 6th) (Nedda/Colombina), Piero Giuliacci/Carlo Barricelli (1st, 6th) (Canio/Pagliaccio), Gevorg Hakobyan/Rodrigo Esteves (1st, 6th) (Tonio/Taddeo), Gregory Bonfatti (Peppe/Arlecchino), Luca Salsi (Silvio), Giampaolo Ledda (first peasant), Alessandro Senes (second peasant).

The Cagliari production, first staged in April 2007, is directed by Lorenzo Mariani, who was applauded by the audience in Cagliari in February 1998 and March 2003 for the staging of two distinct editions of La Bohème. Set design and costumes are the work of Maurizio Balò, lighting design by Guido Levi and choreography by Luciano Cannito.

The Slovenean conductor Marko Letonja conducts the Teatro Lirico Orchestra, Chorus and the Junior Choir. Fulvio Fogliazza is the Chorus Master and Enrico Di Maira is the Junior Choir Master.

Cavalleria rusticana (Roma, Teatro Costanzi, 17th May 1890) and Pagliacci (Milano, Teatro Dal Verme, 21st May 1892) not only represent two of the most popular operas and therefore most staged, but are also a real “manifesto” to Musical Verism. Both masterpieces show the composers’ ability to bring together all the musical components, which are fundamental to the historical-literary movement of which they belong to: historical reality, heated passion, working-class setting and an expressiveness which is taken to extremes, based on sentiments as simple as they are violent. In fact, Mascagni won first prize in an important competition organized by the editor Sonzogno.

Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, represented for the first time in Cagliari in the summer of 1987 at the Anfiteatro Romano, is performed:
- Friday 29th May at 8.30pm (session A),
- Sunday 31st May at 5pm (session D),
- Monday 1st June at 8.30pm (session F),
- Wednesday 3rd June at 8.30pm (session B),
- Friday 5th June at 8.30pm (session C),
- Saturday 6th June at 7pm (session G),
- Sunday 7th June at 5pm (session E).