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Vittorio Forlì
Early in Mascagni's career, when he was working as an assistant conductor on the road, he was employed by the touring company of Vittorio Forlì. This was the company with which Mascagni made his conducting début. The principal conductor at this time was
Diomede La Monaca, with Mascagni billed as an ancillary. As Mascagni relates, in June 1885, at the historic Teatro Reinach, he conducted a performance of Cuore e Mano, that is, the operetta by Charles Lecocq La Coeur et La Main. Also in the cast were:
Severina Bazzi, making her début as Micaëla—and see below for the reviews of her apparently astonishing performance; Dario Acconci (Don Gaetano); Carlo Orsini (Don Mosquitos); Ida Boni (Morales); Pietro Cavallo (Un Capitano);
Luigia Severino (Scolastica); Giuseppina Duranti (Gioseffa); Fanny Ghinassi (Pablo). Settings were by Aurelio Coccia,with Lorenzo Batacchi as stage director.
Playbills from the 1885 season of the Teatro Reinach in Parma
The reviews?
| "Nell'ultima operetta, diretta da Pietro Mascagni, fu fatta debuttare la giovane concittadina Severina Bazzi. Non si sa se per l'emozione o l'impreparazione, pur essendo una caratteristica del pubblico del Reynach di applaudire smodatamente gli interpreti locali, la cantante fece un tonfo tale da coinvolgere l'esito della serata. Per la seconda fu cosė sostituita da Letizia Lambertini." | "The last operetta, directed by Pietro Mascagni, was the début of the young soubrette Severina Bazzi. One does not know if it was a case of nerves or her unpreparedness, but if one of the characteristics of the Reynach public is to applaud the local talent warmly, this singer was such a dud that it was the talk of the evening—for the next performance she was replaced by Letizia Lambertini." |
That same season the company performed:
Babolin (Louis Varney),
Il babbeo e l'intrigante (Enrico Sarria), Le campane di Corneville (Robert Planquette), Il duchino (Charles Lecocq)
Orfeo all'inferno (Jacques Offenbach), La principessa invisibile (M. Iremonger),
I moschettieri al convento, ovvero Armi e amori (Varney) La bella Elena (Offenbach), La figlia di madama Angot (Lecocq), and Giorono e Notte.
Soon after, the Forlì company broke up and was subsumed by the company of Ciro and Alfonso Sconamiglio. While traveling with them, Mascagni's letters to Vichi reflect a growing anxiety that only work on Ratcliff seems to have assuaged.
"My life has become mechanical—home and the theater, the theater and home, working continuously, wearing out body and soul."
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