Freethought Almanac

Lighting a candle in toxic air.

December 7: Pietro Mascagni (1863)

It was on this date, December 7, 1863, that Italian composer Pietro Mascagni was born in Livorno. Today, he is chiefly remembered as composer of Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry), his one-act opera written, as he put it, for the heart and not the head. Mascagni’s opera was not only popular in its day — it premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome, when Mascagni was Director of the Rossini Conservatory at Pesaro — but it is still performed to this day.

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Originally published December 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.

Ronald Bruce Meyer

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January 29: Thomas Paine

Paine wrote, “the Bible and the Testament are impositions upon the world” and that “religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.”



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