Definitions for "Verismo"
A form of Italian opera beginning at the end of the 19th century. The setting is contemporary to the composer's own time, and the characters are modeled after every day life. [Go to source
Italian for realism. In opera it's a term  used to describe a style of Italian opera largely pioneered by Mascagni. It was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and which produced 'slices of life' rather than the idealised larger - then - life characters and subjects previously favoured. The most important verismo composers are Cilea, Giordano, Mascagni, Leoncavallo and Puccini, the latter only in part a verismo composer.
A descriptive term for a realistic, often sensational, type of late-Romantic Italian opera, whose disreputable characters are caught up in lust, greed, betrayal, or revenge.