About Pietro Mascagni:
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music. Some critics[who?] held that Mascagni, like Leoncavallo, was a "one-opera man" who could never repeat his first success, but L'amico Fritz and Iris have remained in the repertoire in Europe since their premieres.[citation needed] Mascagni said that at one point, Iris was performed in Italy more often than Cavalleria (cf. Stivender).