The plot of Pietro Mascagni's tragic opera Cavalleria Rusticana is ''immoral'' and unsuitable for performances while the Sicilian city of Caltagirone holds its religious festival, the local church said on Wednesday.The Caltagirone Curia said ''scenes and contents'' of the 1890 opera ''contrasted with the religious festivity and the sacredness of the family'' and could not be performed during the August 13-15 feast of Maria Santissima Del Ponte, the city's patron saint.
The one-act opera, based on a story by celebrated 19th century Italian writer Giovanni Verga, is a tale of love, jealousy and betrayal set in a Sicilian village.
It tells the story of Turiddu, a soldier who returns home to find his sweetheart Lola married to Alfio. Turridu tries to console himself with Santuzza but before long he begins an affair with Lola.
The spurned Santuzza informs Alfio who challenges Turiddu to a duel and kills him.
Cavalleria Rusticana is usually performed on a double bill with Ruggero Leoncavalli's Pagliacci.
Movie fans will remember seeing portions of it in the final scenes of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather, Part III, when Anthony Corleone - a tenor and the godfather's son - sings the role of Turiddu in Palermo's Teatro Massimo.
Gianfranco Piluso, who had been set to stage the opera at the festival, blasted the Curia's decision as ''cultural obscurantism''.
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