Elina Garanca–Regina Coeli

This is a tandem post, timed to provide you with a second example of the use of a prayer form of music in a commercial production. We just heard Victor Herbert’s “The Angelus;” now we are going to listen to some music by the great Italian composer, Pietro Mascagni.

Wikipedia tells us that the Regina Caeli or Regina Coeli (“Queen of Heaven”) is a Latin hymn that has been traced back to the 12th Century. In this case, the “plainsong melodies” sung in church were usurped by Pietro Mascagni, who wrote the “Regina coeli” chorus for his one-act opera, Cavallieria Rusticana, in 1890. This emotionally stirring chorus is led by Elina Garanca.