Verismo (from the Italian vero — “true”) carried the principles of literary naturalism into opera. Instead of gods and kings — peasants, workers, artisans; instead of lofty sentiments — jealousy, poverty, violence, love, and death in their rawest form.
The style's manifestos were the short operas Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni (1890, one act) and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo (1892, prologue and two acts), often staged together in a single evening. The peak of verismo expression is the operatic dramaturgy of Giacomo Puccini (La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly), where realism is fused with boundless melody.
