This new release from the Opera Discovery label presents the world-premiere studio recording of Pietro Mascagni's Pinotta.

The young Pietro Mascagni had written in 1881 the cantata In filanda, written by Alfredo Soffredini. Later, when the Conservatory of Milan announced a competition to which the students could participate with a work, the composer asked Soffredini to rewrite the libretto, modified the material of the cantata, transforming it into an opera and adding La tua stella, a romance for singing and piano. The work of reconstruction, however, continued for too long, and Mascagni could not deliver the work in time, in the meantime renamed Pinotta.

Fifty years after Mascagni decided to put his hand back to work, which had never been represented and whose score had been forgotten in a trunk, rewriting the libretto to Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and reworking some parts. The new, and definitive, Pinotta went on stage successfully at the Teatro del Casino di San Remo in 1932 directed by Mascagni himself and starring Mafalda Favero, Alessandro Ziliani and Ernesto Badini.

Pietro Mascagni was born in Livorno on 7 December 1863 and followed his musical vocation against his father's wishes. His first compositions won him financial support to study at the Milan Conservatory. In 1888 he won the Sonzogno Competition with Cavalleria rusticana. The opera's premiere in 1890 was a tremendous success, which Mascagni built on the following year with L'amico Fritz. He became increasingly prominent as a conductor and in 1892 conducted his opera I Rantzau around Europe. He was director of the Liceo Musicale in Pesaro 1885-1902. Pietro Mascagni died in Rome on 2 August 1945.

Cast:
- Pinotta: Silvia Dalla Benetta (soprano)
- Baldo: Fabio Armiliato (tenor)
- Andrea: Carlo Colombara (bass)
- Le voci degli zeffiri: Chiara Di Dino (soprano), Camilla Antonini (mezzo-soprano), Moon Jin Kim (contralto)