(Born; Livorno, 7 Dec 1863; Died; Rome, 2 Aug 1945). Italian composer. He studied with Ponchielli and Saladino at the Milan Conservatory (1882-4), then worked as a touring conductor and wrote Guglielmo Ratcliff (Circa;1855). His next opera was the one-act Cavalleria rusticana, which was staged in Rome in 1890 and won him immediate international acclaim: it effectively established the vogue for verismo. None of his later operas was anything like so successful, though some numbers from L'amico Fritz (1891) and the oriental Iris (1898) have survived in the repertory. Later works include the comedy Le maschere (1901), the unexpectedly powerful Il piccolo Marat (1921) and Nerone (1935), this last testifying to his identification with fascism.