• Prologue: The Unification of Italy and the World of Opera to 1890
Opera and Society on the Eve of Unification
• Unification and Its Discontents
• Positivism and Naturalism: The New Class and Its Doctrines
• Italian Opera in Crisis: 1860-1890

"Abbiamo un maestro:" Cavalleria Rusticana and Its Progeny
The Premiere of Cavalleria rusticana
• Pietro Mascagni
• Cavalleria rusticana, A Transformative Opera
• Diffusion and Imitation
• Ruggero Leoncavallo and Pagliacci
• Verismo Opera: Fact or Fancy?

Catalani, Franchetti, and the Rise of Puccini
Catalani, Puccini, and Franchetti in 1890
• Alfredo Catalani, Poet of Melancholy
• Alberto Franchetti and the Last Grand Opera
• Giacomo Puccini Makes His Operative Debut
• Edgar and Manon Lescaut: Puccini’s Path to Creative Maturity

The giovane scuola Comes of Age: Giordano, Cilea and the House of Sonzogno
The giovane scuola Emerges
• Umberto Giordano
• Francesco Cilea
• Costume Drama and Cinematic Opera: Giordamo’s Andrea Chenier

The Greatest Living Italian: The Last Decade of Giuseppe Verdi
The Last Hero
• Verdi and the giovane scuola
• Va, vechhio Giuseppe . . . Falstaff and the Apotheosis of Giuseppe Verdi

The Rise of Bourgeois Opera in a Changing Nation
The Crisis of the Fin de siecle
• Opera for the Changing Tastes of the Bourgeosie
• Tender Feelings and Everyday Objects
• Sexuality, Violence, and Melodrama
• Sex, Violence, and Symbolism in Mascagni’s Iris

The Land of Opera
Temples of Opera
• The Second Tier
• The Crisis of the teatri masimi and the decline and fall of the Teatro alla Scala
• Brining La Scala Back to Life
• Bands, Choral Societies, and Opera outside the Opera Houses

Performing Opera
The Operatic Octopus
• Singers
• Conductors
• Staging and the disponsizione scenica

Ricordi, Sonzogno, and the Power of the Publishers
The Publishing Duopoly
• Publishers and their Composers
• A New Generation Takes Over

Librettists and Libretti
The Librettists
• Luigi Illica: Librettist to a Generation
• The Fin de siecle Libretto

The giovana scuola Grows Older
Leoncavallo’s Moment Passes
• The Long Winter of Alberto Franchetti
• Adriana Lecouvreur and Cilea’s Silence
• Puccini and the Apotheosis of Bourgeois Opera

Comic Opera
The Problem of Comdy
• Mascagni’s Le Maschere and Its Seven Premieres
• Wolf-Ferrari and the Goldoni Operas

Gabriele D’Annunzio and the New Generation
The Age of Giolliti
• The Rise of the New Generation
• Gabriele D’Annunzio, Wagner, and Italion Opera

Tristan’s Children
Pietro Mascagni, Isabeau, and Parisina
• Italo Montemezi and L’amore dei tre re
• Riccardo Zandonai and Francesca da Rimini

The End of the Era
The Crisis of the Tradition
• The Challenge of the Intellectuals
• The Modernist Challenge and the “Generazione dell’ottanta”
• The Rise of the Cinema and the Capture of the Opera Audience

Epilogue
Summing Up
• The Last Hurah of the giovana scuola
• The Opera Museum