“Easter Showdown Motivated By Jealousy!” “Clown Commits Murder On Stage!”

These are two headlines that might have graced Edoardo Sonzogno’s front pages, and it is the Milanese newspaper publisher and his annual opera-writing competition we have to thank for Italy’s two most popular one-act works.

The two pieces can be considered twin operas as they have much in common, and the works are probably the greatest examples of the verismo movement of naturalistic operas depicting the problems of flesh-and-blood characters.

Place: Hungarian State Opera

Address: 1061 Budapest, Andrássy út 22.