Verismo

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An artistic movement characterized by the representation of everyday life, aiming for authenticity and realistic portrayals of ordinary individuals and their experiences
2. A style focused on capturing true-to-life narratives and details, particularly emphasizing the realistic depiction of common people and their struggles
3. An approach in art and literature that emphasizes the portrayal of reality, highlighting the lives and experiences of average individuals while striving for truthfulness

Etymology: Verismo is a movement in Italian opera and literature of the late nineteenth century, and its name comes straight from the Italian adjective "vero", meaning "true", combined with the suffix "-ismo", the Italian equivalent of "-ism". The word therefore means something like "truthism" or "truth-ism", a label for a style that aimed to portray everyday, often harsh, reality rather than mythical heroes and idealised settings. The label was applied to a group of composers and writers, most famously Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo in opera, whose works such as "Cavalleria rusticana" and "Pagliacci" dealt with peasants, jealousy and violence in contemporary settings. Writers such as Giovanni Verga were associated with the same realist impulse in prose, and the term was used to describe their shared commitment to depicting ordinary people as they were.