Mascagni’s rise is a musical dishwasher career. The son of a baker from Puglia was able to study at the conservatory in Milan thanks to the support of noble patrons. He became friends there with Puccini, with whom he also shared a room for a time. Mascagni dropped out of his studies, but only made it to the position of bandmaster of a small town. He subsequently took part in the composer’s competition of the publisher Sonzogno and surprisingly got into the last three with “Cavalleria rusticana”, which enabled him to have a performance in Rome, where his work was chosen as the winner. The work hit like a bomb and was quickly played all over the world and Mascagni was freed from money worries for the rest of his life. It is part of Mascagni’s triumph and tragedy that in later years he was unable to repeat this success of his younger years. As a result, he remained faithful to Rome. He came to terms with the fascist regime, which is why he was not given an honorable burial when he died shortly after World War II.