The final decade of the 19th century witnessed the emergence of new themes in the world of Italian opera, inspired by the realistic literary production of the period. Having shed the limitations of Romantic idealization, Emile Zola’s naturalistic writing aspired to portraying the world with all its dark sides and suffering, an approach which had its parallel in opera in Verismo, a movement characterized by emphasis on subjects dominated by passions, and plots climaxing more often than not with violent, tragic endings.
