page_title: Mese mariano
section_title: Composition history
hierarchical_section_title: Mese mariano / Composition history
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Salvatore Di Giacomo
context_page_description: Mese mariano is an opera in one act by Umberto Giordano. Its Italian libretto by Salvatore Di Giacomo was adapted from his play 'O Mese Mariano, which was in turn adapted from his novella, Senza vederlo. It premiered at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo on 17 March 1910. The opera is described as a bozzetto lirico and has a running time of 35 minutes. It tells the story of a woman who visits an orphanage to see her child. Racked with guilt at having abandoned him, she is unaware that he had died the night before.
context_section_description: The play which forms the basis for the libretto was immensely popular in its day. Written in Neapolitan dialect, it was first performed at the Teatro San Fernando in Naples on 20 January 1900. Giordano, who had seen the play in Milan, was deeply touched by it and asked Di Giacomo to adapt it for an opera. Di Giacomo accepted and agreed to make some changes from the original drama. The setting of the opening scene which allowed Giordano to include a children's chorus was changed to the sunny courtyard in the orphanage with views of the Neapolitan landscape in the distance. The roles of the nuns also became more prominent, making the opera largely one of female voices. In this respect and in terms of its plot, Giordano's work pre-figures Puccini's Suor Angelica which was composed some seven years later.
caption: Librettist Salvatore Di Giacomo
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