But the tenor
(de Lucia) insisted that he should speak the line. I do not believe the
story. (1) As Maurel was the original Tonio and the tenor was
comparatively unknown, it is doubtful whether Maurel, of all men, would
have allowed of the loss of a fat line. (2) As Canio is chief of the
company it is eminently proper that he should make the announcement to
the crowd. (3) The ghastly irony is accentuated by the speech when it
comes from Canio's mouth."

CHAPTER IX

"CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA"

Having neither the patience nor the inclination to paraphrase a comment
on Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" which I wrote years ago when the
opera was comparatively new, and as it appears to me to contain a just
estimate and criticism of the work and the school of which it and
"Pagliacci" remain the foremost exemplars, I quote from my book,
"Chapters of Opera" [Footnote: "Chapters of Opera," by H. E. Krehbiel,
p.223] "Seventeen years ago 'Cavalleria Rusticana' had no perspective.
Now, though but a small portion of its progeny has been brought to our
notice, we nevertheless look at it through a vista which looks like a
valley of moral and physical death through which there flows a sluggish
stream thick with filth and red with blood. Strangely enough, in spite
of the consequences which have followed it, the fierce little drama
retains its old potency. It still speaks with a voice which sounds like
the voice of truth. Its music still makes the nerves tingle, and
carries our feelings unresistingly on its turbulent current. But the
stage-picture is less sanguinary than it looked in the beginning. It
seems to have receded a millennium in time. It has the terrible
fierceness of an Attic tragedy, but it also has the decorum which the
Attic tragedy never violated. There is no slaughter in the presence of
the audience, despite the humbleness of its personages. It does not
keep us perpetually in sight of the shambles. It is, indeed, an
exposition of chivalry; rustic, but chivalry nevertheless. It was thus
Clytemnestra slew her husband, and Orestes his mother. Note the
contrast which the duel between Alfio and Turiddu presents with the
double murder to the piquant accompaniment of comedy in 'Pagliacci,'
the opera which followed so hard upon its heels. Since then piquancy
has been the cry; the piquant contemplation of adultery, seduction, and
murder amid the reek and stench of the Italian barnyard. Think of
Cilea's 'Tilda,' Giordano's