#mascagni

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS

Picture it: Sicily, 1883.

An attractive peasant girl is minding her own business, when a young man from her village starts courting her without warning. That young man, Turiddu, is a former soldier who recently returned from the army, so she’s of course impressed. It’s a well-known fact that he had been courting with Lola, the village beauty, before he set off into the army, but that by the time he returned, she was married to Alfio, the village carter.

Anyway, after that betrayal, Turiddu immediately sets his sights on the aforementioned peasant girl, who believes his ardent declarations and promises well enough to allow him to make passionate love to her. Of course, what is bound to happen happens, and soon enough, the entire village hears all about this affair. And because this was Sicily, 1883, the girl gets all the blame and is even excommunicated from the church, while Turiddu gets away with everything.

To make matters worse, it becomes very clear that he seduced her with the intention of making Lola jealous, which works flamboyantly well, because soon enough, the jilted peasant girl witnesses him hanging around Lola’s house every night while Alfio is away carting shit, blissfully unaware of all these happenings.

And then on Easter, she begs Turiddu one last time to come back to her, to no avail. Outraged, she curses his Easter, and later tells Alfio all about Lola’s affair, though she immediately comes to regret it. Alfio challenges Turiddu to a knife fight, which he accepts by biting his ear till it bleeds, which is a Sicilian custom meant to represent a fight to the death. Turiddu gets killed in the fight, but not before telling his mother to look after the girl in case he doesn’t come back.