Currents in Italian literature and art of the end of the 19th century. It appeared at the end of the 80s. (Literary manifesto of verist writers - 1880). The principles of literary verism (J. Verga, L. Capuana, D. Champoli) are similar to the ideas of French naturalism: the depiction of everyday life, the psychological experiences of the characters, attention to the dark sides of the lives of the urban and rural poor, a strictly scientific approach to the study of facts along with the rejection of broad ideological generalizations, positivist "objectivism", reluctance to "pass judgment" on the social defects of modern society.

Musical verism arose under the influence of literary verism and is represented mainly by the opera works of P. Mascagna, R. Leoncavallo, and partly by G. Puccini. The prerequisites for the emergence of opera realism can be found in the realistic operas of French and Italian composers of the second half of the 19th century ("Carmen" by J. Bizet, "La Traviata" by G. Verdi). The plot of J. Verga's popular short story "Rural Honor" served as the basis for the libretto of Mascagna's "rural drama" of the same name (1890). Another example of the new opera style is Leoncavallo's "Pajatsi" (1892) - a highly dramatic opera-novela from the lives of rural comedians in Southern Italy.

The highest achievements of Italian opera verism include a number of Puccini's operas, which continued the realistic traditions of Verdi: "Manon Lescaut" (1893), "Bohème" (1896), "Longing" (1900), "Madame Butterfly" (1904). However, not everything in these operas corresponds to the aesthetic norms of verism, and in later operas ("Gianni Scicchi", 1919, "Turandot", 1924) Puccini deviates from the principles of verism theater in many respects.

Composers U. Giordano, N. Spinelli, F. Chilea, F. Alfano (in early works), R. Dzandonai, and others were also representatives of the verist direction. Albert, 1903), France ("Louise" by Charpentier, 1900, a number of operas by A. Bruno, late operas by J. Massenet).

In Italian verist operas, the departure of the heroic-romantic traditions of V. Bellini and early G. Verdi, the weakening of socio-critical pathos, and the rejection of large-scale folk choral scenes are noticeable. Like the representatives of literary verism, composers are mainly attracted by the psychological experiences of the characters, pictures of everyday life. The dramaturgy of verist operas sometimes converges with naturalistic drama: sharp collisions, tense conflicts prevail in it, the action often takes place in an everyday, prosaic setting.

New for Italian opera was an appeal to a modern theme, a depiction of the everyday life of ordinary people — peasants, artisans, representatives of the intelligentsia. Verist opera did not shy away from elements of the exotic (pictures of Japanese life in "Madame Butterfly", American - in Puccini's "Girl from the West").

The atmosphere of touching sentimentality, sensitivity, which is disturbed by outbursts of melodramatic passions, some monotony of the plot material, limited to the themes of love and jealousy, reduce the social pathos of verist operas compared to Verdi's operas. However, they are also characterized by the effectiveness of theatrical situations, the tension of climactic scenes.

The important conquests of verist opera were the kaleidoscopic change of events, which involves the "frame" montage of cinema, the use of prose text instead of verse. Verist operas are characterized by the enrichment of the recitative-declarative sphere, the use of through symphonic development, the rejection of the active role of the choir, of extended arias-monologues, and the introduction of concise dynamic ariosos that differ in melodic expressiveness.

A certain complication of the lado-harmonic and orchestral style (using the creative experience of R. Wagner, later C. Debussy) is combined in the music of the veristes with the simplicity and general availability of song-genre elements born from the domestic music-making of that time.