Italian composer and conductor Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945) is best known for his masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music. While it was often held that Mascagni, like Ruggero Leoncavallo, was a “one-opera man” who could never repeat his first success, L’amico Fritz and Iris have remained in the repertoire in Europe (especially Italy) since their premieres.
Mascagni was born on 7 December 1863 in Livorno, Tuscany. At the age of 13, he began musical studies with Alfredo Soffredini, who founded the Instituto Musicale di Livorno. Mascagni started composing rapidly: between 1879 and 1880, he wrote several works: Sinfonia in do minore, Prima sinfonia in fa maggiore, Elegia, Kyrie, Gloria and Ave Maria.
In 1882, he composed his Cantata alla gioia from a text by Friedrich Schiller, followed by La stella di Garibaldi for voice and piano, and La tua stella. On 6 May Mascagni left Livorno for Milan. He passed the admission examination of the Milan Conservatory on 12 October. In Milan, Mascagni met the noted composer Giacomo Puccini.
He was appointed as the master of music and singing of the new philharmonia of Cerignola. His reputation grew. He also gave piano lessons. In February 1888, he began work on the Messa di Gloria. In July, Casa Sonzogno announced in the Teatro Illustrato its second competition for a one-act opera. The following year, Mascagni completed his composition of Cavalleria rusticana on 27 May and sent the manuscript to Milan.
On 21 February 1890, Mascagni was summoned to Rome to present his opera. The première of Cavalleria rusticana, winner of the Sonzogno contest, was held 17 May at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. It had outstanding success, and the opera was soon performed in both the north and south of Italy: Florence, Turin, Bologna, Palermo, Milan, Genoa, Naples, Venice and Trieste.
In December, Gustav Mahler conducted the opera in Budapest. Soon thereafter, the cities of Munich, Hamburg, St. Petersburg, Dresden and Buenos Aires welcomed the opera. In March 1891, it was sung in Vienna. At age 26, Mascagni had become internationally famous.
He premiered his L’amico Fritz, his second most successful opera, on 31 October 1891 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.
Mascagni became increasingly prominent as a conductor and in 1892 conducted his opera I Rantzau around Europe. He was director of the Liceo Musicale in Pesaro 1885–1902. Further successes included Amica (1905) and Isabeau (1911), alongside such failures as Le maschere (1901).  After the verismo Il piccolo Marat in 1921 he largely withdrew from public life. His final opera Nerone had its premiere in 1935.
Mascagni died on 2 August 1945 in his apartment at the Grand Hotel Plaza in Rome.
He wrote a total of fifteen operas, plus an operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, as well as songs and piano music. He enjoyed immense success during his lifetime, both as a composer and conductor of his own and other people’s music. If he never repeated the international success of Cavalleria, it was probably because Mascagni refused to copy himself. The variety of styles in his operas—the Sicilian passion and warmth of Cavalleria, the exotic flavor of Iris, the idyllic breeze that ventilates the charming L’amico Fritz and Lodoletta, the Gallic chiaroscuro of Isabeau, the steely, Veristic power of Il piccolo Marat, the overripe post-romanticism of the lush Parisina—demonstrate a versatility that none of the other Veristi could boast, Puccini included.