Tag

La Fanciulla Del West

La Fanciulla Del West – Vienna 2013

April 9, 2022

In 2013 The Vienna Staatsoper presented a production of Puccini’s western opera. The full cast is below. Musically it was a terrific performance, especially noteworthy was Jonas Kaufmann’s impersonation of the the reluctant robber turned ardent lover. But Marco Arturo Morelli’s production was like a bad version of a Tom Mix silent movie. The acting […]

La Fanciulla Del West in HD 2018 – Great

October 28, 2018

Wagner ‘s goal was to write opera that consisted of endless melody. I don’t think he reached that goal, but Puccini did in La Fanciulla Del West. Saturday’s performance, the last of seven of this season’s run at the Met, was a spectacular success. Puccini’s luminous score received a dazzling reading by the Met’s orchestra, […]

La Fanciulla Del West in HD 2018 – Great

La Fanciulla Del West in Santa Fe

July 16, 2016

Puccini never wrote anything like the first act of La Fanciulla Del West. Its melodic weave which moves from orchestra to voice and back again owes a lot to Debussy, though its author is clearly Puccini. To an audience familiar with his previous four operas, this type of operatic writing was off putting and confusing which […]

The Girl of the Golden West in Omaha

January 24, 2016

Next February 12 and 14 Opera Omaha will stage Puccini’s real spaghetti western The Girl of the Golden West – aka La Fanciulla del West. The cast is below. Asterisk indicates company debut. Lee Bisset, Minnie* Michael Mayes, Jack Rance* Matthew Treviño, Ashby Elise Quagliata, Wowkle Branch Fields, Jim Larkens / Billy Jack Rabbit* Joshua […]

La Fanciulla Del West from the Met 1992

May 24, 2014

Defunct Met video Added June 15, 2014 – So this YouTube video is also gone. Instead, listen to this performance from 1954. It’s in the public domain and thus will be around for a while. It features Eleanor Steber (Minnie), Gian Giacomo Guefi (Jack Rance), Mario Del Monaco (Dick Johnson), and Dimitri Mitropoulos (conductor). It […]

La Fanciulla Del West – Vienna 2013

May 7, 2014

Below is a YouTube video of a complete performance of Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West performed on October 5, 2013 at the Vienna State Opera. As these videos have a way of disappearing because of copyright issues I’ve also added two sound files of the tenor arias from the opera sung by Jonas Kaufmann from […]

Jonas Kaufmann – Ch’ella mi creda

October 7, 2013

The second tenor aria from Jonas Kaufmann’s first try at Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West is now also available. Ch’ella mi creda is the better known of the two. Again Kaufmann show the intense feeling he has for the words he sings. Another bravura performance. The venue was the Staatsoper in Vienna – Oct 5, […]

Jonas Kaufmann – Or son sei mesi

October 6, 2013

If you need more evidence that Jonas Kaufmann is decibel for decibel the best tenor currently active this video from yesterday’s performance of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West provides it. “Or son sei mesi” is in the second act and is the first of the tenor’s two aria. Kaufmann’s brilliant phrasing and his blaze of […]

La Fanciulla Del West in HD

January 9, 2011

Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West does not enjoy the popularity of the rest of the composer’s mature works. It never will. It’s a wonderful piece that utilizes the orchestra to a greater degree than any other of Puccini’s operas. The orchestral writing is magical. One great melody follows another; they come and go in total sync with […]

Who Can Sing Fanciulla?

December 7, 2010

After listening to the broadcast from the Met of Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West last night, I asked myself who can sing the two principal roles in the opera? Certainly not the two who performed them yesterday. Deborah Voigt in the title role sounded like she was on leave from the old folks home, while […]

Una partita a poker

November 11, 2010

Talk to any theater person and he’ll tell you that the second act curtain should descend on the show’s strongest scene. Nobody was better at ending the second act than Giacomo Puccini. With the premiere of the Met’s revival La Fanciulla del West less than a month away, I thought I’d present a few versions of the opera’s second act finale. This the scene where the […]

Or Son Sei Mesi

September 19, 2010

Puccini’s cowboy opera, La Fanciulla del West, is returning to the Met this season after an absence of 17 years. 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the opera’s world premiere at the Met. Emmy Destinn and Enrico Caruso sang the leads under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. Puccini supervised the production which was directed by […]