premiered on 9 April 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, six weeks before Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria rusticana which was also based on Verga's play.

Cavalleria rusticana, a play in one act and nine scenes, premiered with Duse as Santuzza on 14 January 1884 at the Teatro Carignano in Turin and became Verga's most successful stage work.

The enormous success of Stanislao Gastaldon's 1881 salon song, "Musica proibita", and his subsequent compositions in that genre had made him famous throughout Italy.

Verga wrote back to him on 3 June 1888 to say that he was happy to give his permission but added that the subject as it was treated in the play did not seem suitable for an opera libretto.

[a] Unbeknownst to Verga, another young composer, Pietro Mascagni, entered the same contest at virtually the last minute with his opera Cavalleria rusticana, also based on the story.

Gastaldon withdrew his work early in the competition when he received an offer from Sonzogno's rival, Ricordi, to publish it and arrange for its premiere at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.

The prominent Romanian soprano Elena Theodorini, who had already sung in the premieres of several new operas in Italy, read the score and agreed to sing the key role of Carmela.

[4] Although the critics were dismissive of the work, they did note that it found favour with the opening night audience with loud cheers and requests for Gastaldon to come before the curtain for an ovation even before the performance was finished.

The Catholic journal, La Civiltà Cattolica, did not review the performance but recorded its outrage at the opera's depiction of a religious procession with a priest carrying the Eucharist during a tale of "sordid affairs and adultery" and called it a "sacrilege and vile insult".

According to the journal, the devout Catholics walked out at this point, leaving an audience that consisted largely of "freemasons, riflemen, and an assortment of vulgar people".

Elena Candia and Piero Lupino Mercuri sang the roles of Carmela and Turiddu with Claudio Onofrio Gallina at the piano and Loredana Russo conducting the Stesicoro Choir.

Turiddu's former lover, Carmela, confronts him on Easter morning outside the village church, curses him in a jealous rage, and then tells Lola's husband Alfio about the affair.