Why did Le Maschere get such a bad reaction from the public?
In the previous post we described the unlucky debut of Mascagni’s opera Le Maschere. In this post we will try to undestand why the public did not appreciate the author’s effort to propose something new.
First, because the audience did not understand the author’s real intentions in composing Le Maschere.
As mentioned in the previous post, with Le Maschere Mascagni wanted to highlight his criticism to the state of the opera. His opera was meant to be “a satirical reviews of the musical styles of all periods, from Mozart to today”. Mascagni pursued this scope including in the opera score affectionate parodies of composers of the past and the present (including himself!).
But the public found offensive all these affectionate parodies and associations included in the opera and considered unacceptable for a serious composer to do parody and self-parody in art.
Nont only did the public disapprove the opera but also the critics were severe and accused the author of plagarism and inappropriate behaviour. One of them for example considered an outrage that Mascagni had put Colombina’s sexaual longins into a Bellinian cantilena which recalled the “Casta Diva ” aria.
So public disapproved this comic opera created by a serious composer. They expected more verismo opera from him. According to Mascagni, the ninenteenth-century audience was looking for strong emotions in an opera and Le Maschere as a comic opera did not create such an engagement. For this reason Mascagni included in Le Maschere.
Mascagni continued to believe in Le Maschere and reworked it for further performances with some success.
The importance of Le Maschere does not lie probably in the musical merits but in its cultural role as a precursor of a new genre of opera. New generations of composers such us Malipiero, Busoni, Strauss and Stravinky rediscovered the opera buffa tradition overcoming the Romantic excess.
