Zazà

Zazà (Italian pronunciation: [dzadˈdza]) is an opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, with a libretto by the composer, which draws on the same material as the French play Zaza (1898).

The story concerns the French music hall singer, Zazà, and her affair and subsequent decision to leave her lover, Milio, when she discovers that he is married.

Its premiere was at the Teatro Lirico in Milan on 10 November 1900, starring Rosina Storchio as Zazà, Edoardo Garbin as Milio, Mario Sammarco as Cascart and Clorinda Pini-Corsi as Anaide, and conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

Over the following twenty years it received over fifty new productions from Palermo to Paris, Buenos Aires to Moscow, Cairo to San Francisco, arriving at the Metropolitan Opera on 16 January 1920 in a production directed by David Belasco and conducted by Roberto Moranzoni, starring Geraldine Farrar, Giulio Crimi and Pasquale Amato, and later, Giovanni Martinelli and Giuseppe De Luca.

Dayton Daily News editor Betty Dietz Krebs described Zazà as alternating "between moments of passion and intensity and stretches of comedy" and said that it contains "a string of arias.

cover with ornamental lettering and image of young woman in early 20th century evening costume, with elaborately feathered hat
Cover of piano score, 1919