Named for the rather forgotten Italian composer Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945), who seems an unlikely namesake for a Los Angeles street until you learn that this was one of six composer-themed roads filed in a 1905 tract here (see Beethoven Street). Back then, Mascagni was considered a vital contemporary composer. Today, you’d be forgiven for never having heard of him. Of his fifteen operas, only his 1890 one-act Cavalleria Rusticana gets much play these days, and it’s typically paired up with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s more famous Pagliacci in performance. Mascagni’s late-life fealty to Mussolini and Fascism surely tarnished his reputation.
Find it on the map:
