Giacomo Puccini's horse opera was first performed 100 years ago today, December 10, 1910 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fitting to watch the DVD of the Met production which was premiered in 1991. The same production has been revived and is currently being performed in New York--next month, the Met will do an HD theatre broadcast of the opera.
I love La fanciulla del West. I think it's Puccini's best opera for reasons both musical and dramatic. By 1910, Puccini's skill at composing atmospheric orchestral and vocal music was greater than it had ever been. For an opera set in Gold Rush-era California, Puccini composed music evoking the vast open spaces of the new country--in the opening moments of Act 3, there are some notes from the brass that sound Coplandesque--although Aaron Copland himself, born in 1900, would have been in short pants at the time this opera was composed.
However, this music is unfairly neglected. After composing four operas (Manon Lescaut, La boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly) that seem to consist of almost nothing but one hit tune after another, he then composed five that had almost none: in Fanciulla del West, La rondine, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, there are maybe three famous arias: "Ch'ella me creda", "Che il bel sogno di Doretta", and "O mio babbino caro." Not until Turandot did Puccini become a hitmaker again.
The problem is, Fanciulla's arias are so connected with the drama that it's hard to sing them as separate excerpts: the tenor's Act 2 aria "Or son sei mesi" is, I am convinced, one of the most dramatic arias Puccini ever composed: its heartfelt anguish blows away the cheap tenorial whining in Cavaradossi's "E lucevan le stelle." (For the record, I really really hate Tosca.)
Certainly anyone who thinks Fanciulla is unmelodic should note the case of Mr. Andrew Lloyd Webber. The one and only good tune from his grotesque musical The Phantom of the Opera (the 'hook' from "Music of the Night") was taken directly from Fanciulla del West--it starts off as a waltz tune in Act 1, and turns into a love theme that is used to great effect in Acts 1 and 2, and eventually turned into an almost hymn-like tune of redemption and sadness in the final act. The Puccini estate quite rightly sued Webber (at the time, the opera was still under copyright) who paid an undisclosed settlement for his misuse of the melody Puccini created.
But enough of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Besides the music of Fanciulla del West, I also love the drama itself. The opera is occasionally compared to Tosca, and there are superficial similarities: the soprano loves the tenor, the tenor is in trouble, the baritone lusts after the soprano and wants to kill the tenor and, scarily, has the weight of the law on his side. But while Floria Tosca was a whiny little self-pitying brat, Minnie is a strong, independent woman who loves her friends and does her best to help and protect the people she loves. While Cavaradossi is a self-righteous artist (the worst sort of self-righteous person), Ramerrez is a criminal who recognize his evil deeds and is desperately trying to make himself a better person. While Scarpia is, essentially, a complete monster, Sheriff Jack Rance is a harsh, angry, lonely and wildly unhappy person who, unlike Scarpia, keeps his promise, and loses like a gentleman. There is no perfectly good and no perfectly evil character in Fanciulla's universe.
The end of the opera is a true rarity in Puccini: a genuinely happy ending. No one dies, and Minnie and Ramerrez leave forever, not in despair or in a spirit of cynicism, but in one of hope for the future. The real climax of the opera comes in the miner Sonora's big moment near the end when he sings the now transformed Act 1 waltz tune as the miners, won over by Minnie's love and Ramerrez's genuine repentance, let them go to start a new life. For once, Puccini can bring tears to viewers eyes without killing off a soprano. It's a wonderfully cathartic moment.
The Metropolitan Opera DVD, recorded in April 1992, is a glorious performance of the opera. Leonard Slatkin, normally best-known as a symphonic rather than an operatic conductor, brings a freshness to a performance, not to mention performing some bits that are usually cut from performance (Sadly the extended version of the Act 2 tenor-soprano duet was not kept in). The production was originally meant to star Eva Marton, however, between the time that the production was planned and it was actually staged, Marton and the Met Opera management had a falling out, and she left the company for several years. Instead, Barbara Daniels, a singer not often recorded, plays the difficult role of Minnie. She manages the high-lying dramatic lines well, and portrays a tomboyish Minnie, fiercely protective of the miners and later, of Ramerrez.
Sherrill Milnes, near the end of his career here, is Jack Rance, authoritative and violent. But even Rance is human, and Milnes' portrayal of Rance's disbelieving shock of losing the poker game in Act 2 is shattering. The director, Gian-Carlo del Monaco, cannily has Rance be the first and last character seen onstage in the opera.
And Placido Domingo, age 51 at the time this was recorded, was in his late career prime. These performances may, in fact, have been the last performances of this opera that he ever sang: it's not an easy role. His tone is burnished, his high notes, while secure, are just slightly insecure enough to make the performance sound dangerous. (In fact, I believe in the radio broadcast of the opera, one of his high notes was muffed, so the sound of the video may have been fixed in the studio slightly).
Kim Josephson, who has gone on to sing the larger role of Rance elsewhere, is a friendly, mellifluous Sonora. Dwayne Croft, near the beginning of his career here is Larkens (he currently sings Sonora in the Met revival).
The sets and costumes by Michael Scott are very realistic and beautiful, making use of California's mountains and, in the final act, a ghost town. Del Monaco's production emphasizes, I think, the spirit of redemption heard throughout the opera.
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