This thesis examines the production and reception of Pietro Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria Rusticana in Stockholm in December 1890. The opera had been successfully premiered in Rome in May 1890. The first performance outside Italy took place at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm seven months after the premiere.  The aim of the thesis is to increase the understanding of opera as a cultural phenomenon in Stockholm at the end of the 19th century. William Sewell’s ideas about the different meanings of the word ‘culture’ are used to give content to the concept of ‘cultural phenomenon’. Culture is seen as a category of social life with both a system of symbols and a sphere of practice.   The primary sources are documents from the Archive of the Royal Theatres and Swedish newspapers in the database ‘Svenska Dagstidningar’ at the National Library of Sweden. The study shows that Cavalleria Rusticana was staged unusually quickly in Stockholm and seems to have become a role model for future short staging processes. The thesis describes and analyses parts of the production process and identifies the factors that made the rapid process possible. Ticket sales and the number of performances are examined to describe and analyse audience reception. The Swedish press coverage of Cavalleria Rusticana was extensive before and after the Stockholm premiere. The thesis describes and analyses the content of the newspaper reports. Finally, some suggestions for further research are made.

Notre analyse se concentre sur la représentation narrative des lieux et des paysages dans les deux versions du Mastro-don Gesualdo de Giovanni Verga (1888 et 1889) en ajoutant à l'approche littéraire traditionnelle celle des études stylistiques et de la typologie textuelle. Partant du principe historico-critique selon lequel l'espace est l'élément clé dans la relation entre syntaxe, lexique d'auteur, thèmes et contenus dans le roman moderne, nous avons élaboré et analysé un corpus contenant une centaine de passages descriptifs. Nous avons confronté tout d'abord les solutions textuelles adoptées par l'auteur dans les deux éditions du roman, et nous avons ensuite essayé de caractériser, sur la base de ces données objectives, les dynamiques de textualisation et de structuration des facteurs spatiaux et paysagers dans le Mastro-don Gesualdo. En comparant les rares énonciations théoriques de Verga avec des extraits du texte narratif, nous avons pu remarquer que dans la représentation de la réalité du Mastro-don Gesualdo, l'auteur a bien présent à l'esprit l'idée de Zola de faire participer les descriptions de l’environnement d’un personnage à sa caractérisation, mais qu'il ne renonce pas pour autant à un descriptivisme littéraire et imprégné de lyrisme. La présence des stratégies syntaxiques, stylistiques et élocutoires - au niveau des allitérations et des onomatopées jusqu'à celui des anaphores, des comparaisons, des antithèses et des métonymies - confirme le lien constant entre grammaire et rhétorique en tant que caractéristique stylistique des chefs-d’œuvre véristes. / Our analysis concentrates on the narrative representation of places and landscapes in both versions of Giovanni Verga's Mastro-don Gesualdo (on 1888 and 1889) by adding to the traditional literary approach that of the stylistic studies and the textual typology. Runner of the principle historico-criticizes according to which one(which) the space is the key element in the relation between syntax, author's lexicon, themes and contained in the modern novel, we developed and analyzed a corpus containing hundred descriptive passages. We confronted first of all the textual solutions adopted by the author in both publishing(editions) of the novel, and we then tried to characterize, on the basis of these objective data, the dynamics of textualisation and of structuring of the spatial factors. / L’analisi condotta in questa tesi di dottorato si incentra sulla rappresentazione narrativa di luoghi e paesaggi nelle due stesure del Mastro-don Gesualdo di Giovanni Verga (1888 e 1889), e integra al tradizionale approccio letterario un’osservazione linguistico-stilistica e tipologico-testuale. A partire dal presupposto storico-critico che nel romanzo moderno lo spazio è il cardine della relazione tra sintassi, lessico d’autore, temi e contenuti, si è costruito e indagato un corpus di un centinaio di inserti descrittivi. Si sono raffrontate innanzitutto le soluzioni testuali adottate dall’autore nelle due edizioni del romanzo, e si è poi tentato di caratterizzare, in base a dati attendibili e oggettivi, le dinamiche di testualizzazione e di strutturazione dei fattori spaziali e paesistici nel Mastro-don Gesualdo. Confrontando le rare enunciazioni teoriche verghiane con il testo narrativo, si è potuto appurare come nella rappresentazione della realtà gesualdesca l’autore abbia ben presente il mandato zoliano di attagliare realisticamente le descrizioni alla caratterizzazione ambientale del personaggio, ma non rinunci a un descrittivismo liricheggiante e letterario. L’articolata gamma di strategie sintattico-stilistiche ed elocutive - dal livello minimo di allitterazioni e onomatopee al livello più elevato di anafore, similitudini, antitesi, metonimie - conferma il costante connubio tra grammatica e retorica come cifra stilistica dei capolavori veristi.