Mascagni: L'Amico Fritz

Premiered in 1891, just a year after the success of his one-act Cavalleria rusticana, Pietro Mascagni's sentimental comedy L'Amico Fritz secured his status as one of the brightest hopes of Italian opera after Verdi. But L'Amico Fritz was an emphatic turn away from the sensational plot of Cavalleria rusticana, allowing Mascagni space to for a more detailed psychological study of the two lovers at the plot's heart. Rosetta Cucchi's 2022 production for Florence persuasively updates the action to 20th-century Little Italy, with American tenor Charles Castronovo and Georgian soprano Salome Jicia as the romantic leads, Fritz Kobus and Suzel, alongside a largely Italian cast. Riccardo Frizza conducts.