Teatro alla Scalla,
Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro alla Scalla
cond. Lorin Maazel; chorus director Giulio Bertola
Additional information:
Links for the DVD of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West:
http://www.naxosdirect.com/title/OA%20LS3004D/
http://www.opusarte.com/pages/product.asp?ProductID=71
Complete cast list:
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Minnie, owner of The Polka saloon -- Mara Zampieri, soprano
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Jack Rance, sheriff -- Juan Pons, baritone
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Dick Johnson/Ramerrez, bandit -- Plácido Domingo, tenor
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Nick, bartender at The Polka saloon -- Sergio Bertocchi, tenor
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Ashby, Wells Fargo Transport Company agent -- Luigi Roni, bass
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Billy Jackrabbit, a Native American -- Aldo Bramante, bass
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Wowkle, Billy's lover, also Native American -- Nella Verri, mezzo-soprano
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Jake Wallace, a traveling camp minstrel -- Marco Chingari, baritone
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José Castro, one of Ramerrez's bandits -- Claudio Giombi, bass
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Miners:
Sonora -- Antonio Salvadori, baritone
Trin/Trim -- Ernesto Gavazzi, tenor
Sid -- Giovanni Savoiardo, baritone
Bello/Handsome -- Orazio Mori, baritone
Harry -- Francesco Memeo, tenor
Joe -- Aldo Bottion, tenor
Happy -- Ernesto Panariello, baritone
Larkens -- Pietro Spagnoli, bass -
Pony Express riders and men of the camp
Setting: a miners' camp at the foot of the Cloudy Montains, California, during the 1849-1850 gold rush
La Fanciulla del West synopsis
with material from Julian Budden: 'Fanciulla del West, La', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 25 August 2007),
Early in 1907, during his first visit to New York for the Metropolitan premières of Manon Lescaut and Madama Butterfly, Puccini saw three of Belasco’s plays performed on Broadway, among them The Girl of the Golden West. He was not enthusiastic. ‘I like the ambience of the West’, he wrote to Tito Ricordi, ‘but in all the “pièces” I’ve seen I’ve found only a few scenes here and there. Never a simple thread, all muddle and at times bad taste and old hat’. However, a seed had been sown; and when at the end of May Puccini went to London, his friend Sybil Seligman urged him to consider Belasco’s drama, of which she procured him an Italian translation. By July Puccini was firmly decided. He wrote to his publisher asking him to obtain the rights as well as the author’s permission to make certain changes to the action (these would amount to transferring the bible-class from the third act to the first and amalgamating Acts 3 and 4, where the setting would be a Californian forest). Of his previous librettists, Giacosa was dead and Illica fully engaged on a libretto about Marie Antoinette (for which Puccini had contracted but which he never set). Tito Ricordi indicated Carlo Zangarini as the ideal collaborator, especially since his mother was American. In August the contracts were signed for what Puccini foretold would prove ‘a second Bohème, only stronger, bolder and more spacious’. Zangarini completed the libretto in January 1908. Puccini was satisfied with his general scheme but insisted that he take on a partner to polish the details. Zangarini threatened to go to law, but eventually agreed to collaborate with the Livornese poet Guelfo Civinini. By May the first two acts had been reworked to Puccini’s satisfaction and he was able to begin composition, but in October a domestic tragedy occurred which caused a hiatus of nine months. Resuming in August 1909, Puccini completed the score a year later. To Sybil Seligman goes the credit for settling on the exact title. The opera was dedicated to the British queen, Alexandra.
In November 1910 Puccini set sail for America for what would be the first world première ever held at the Metropolitan. No expense had been spared. The cast included Emmy Destinn (Minnie), Enrico Caruso (Dick Johnson) and Pasquale Amato (Jack Rance), with Antonio Pini-Corsi, creator of Schaunard in La bohème, in the minute role of Happy. The conductor was Toscanini. Belasco himself assisted Tito Ricordi with the production. To all appearances the opera was a triumphant success, the composer receiving 55 curtain calls, but the critics were guarded. The Covent Garden première followed on 29 May 1911, again in Puccini’s presence, conducted by Cleofonte Campanini with Emmy Destinn (Minnie), Amadeo Bassi (Johnson) and the Metropolitan’s Sonora, Dinh Gilly as Jack Rance. There the reception was less encouraging. La fanciulla del West was finally introduced to Italy at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome, on 12 June that year under Toscanini, with Eugenia Burzio (Minnie), Amadeo Bassi (Johnson) and Pasquale Amato (Rance), but it achieved no more than a succès d’estime. Although Puccini declared it his best opera to date it failed to enter the general repertory; nor until late in the century was it estimated at its true worth. However, the tenor solo from Act 3, ‘Ch’ella mi creda libero e lontano’, is said to have been sung by Italian troops during World War I as an equivalent to the English song ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’.
Act 1 The Polka saloon, at sunset A prelude, intended by Puccini to evoke the vast Californian forest, presents two important ideas: the lyrical theme associated with the hero and heroine’s first embrace and a modified version of the cake-walk motif which on its later appearance will connote the bandit Ramerrez. Then the distant voices of the approaching miners are heard. They enter in twos and threes to a hoedown theme, to be welcomed by Nick. Happy, Harry, Bello and Joe sit down to a game of faro with Sid as banker. Jake Wallace regales the company with the nostalgic song ‘Che faranno i vecchi miei' (one of the most frequently repeated motifs in the opera), which causes Larkens to break down in tears. All present contribute money for his passage home. Sid is caught cheating and the miners threaten to hang him, but Rance pins a two of spades to his lapel as a mark of shame and has him thrown out of the saloon. Ashby arrives with news of the imminent capture of the bandit Ramerrez. A quarrel breaks out between Rance and Sonora, both in love with Minnie, and Sonora draws a revolver. Trin grabs his arm and diverts the shot. The appearance of Minnie herself to a broad, wide-intervalled theme calms the atmosphere. The miners offer her their modest gifts and settle down to a bible-class, which she takes. The Pony Express Rider arrives with the mail and Ashby interrogates him about one Nina Micheltorena, the bandit’s mistress, who is expected to reveal his whereabouts. The men go into the adjoining dance hall leaving Rance alone with Minnie. He declares his love for her and talks of his unhappy background (‘Minnie, dalla mia casa’). She, knowing him to be already married, imagines a different picture of domestic bliss based on memories of her own happy childhood (‘Laggiù nel Soledad, ero piccina’). Nick returns with a stranger, whose identity is betrayed to the audience by the ‘Ramerrez’ motif. He gives his name as Johnson. Rance takes an instant dislike to him and orders the men to force him to account for his presence. But Minnie, who remembers once meeting him on the road, vouches for him. A waltz is struck up in the hall, where Minnie and Johnson dance together. Ashby and a group of men enter from outside dragging in José Castro. Pretending to have deserted Ramerrez’s band, Castro promises to lead them to the chief. His real purpose is to draw the miners away from the Polka so that Ramerrez may rob the saloon. When Johnson re-enters Castro manages to whisper to him his plan – a whistle outside will be the signal for him to proceed. The miners prepare to ride away with Castro, leaving Minnie to guard their earnings. She and Johnson express their dawning sympathy for one another in a duet based mainly on a reprise of the waltz melody. The whistle is heard but Johnson takes no action. He accepts Minnie’s invitation to visit her later at her mountain hut, then leaves. Nick returns to find Minnie absorbed in the recollection of Johnson’s last words to her – that she has the face of an angel.
La fanciulla del West is a remarkable instance of self-renewal on the part of a composer who would seem to have exhausted a vein in which feminine softness predominates. The opera’s atmosphere is unyieldingly masculine, at times brutal, the harmonies more astringent than ever before with plentiful use of whole-tone chords and unresolved dissonances, the rhythms vigorous, sometimes syncopated and the lyrical moments comparatively few. The influence of Debussy and the Richard Strauss of Salome is clear, though, as always, perfectly integrated within the composer’s personal style. The Californian ambience is evoked with the aid of American folktunes and folkdances, either authentic or imitated, with a Red Indian chant to characterize Billy Jackrabbit and his squaw. Minnie is unique among Puccini’s heroines – cheerfully authoritative with a touch of the Puritan schoolmarm yet susceptible to tender passion and ready to compromise her strict principles in order to save the life of the man she loves.
Orchestrally La fanciulla del West is Puccini’s most ambitious undertaking before Turandot, his forces including quadruple woodwind, two harps and an assortment of percussion, from all of which he distilled a vast range of instrumental colour from the delicate to the barbaric. Though it has never attained the easy popularity of its three predecessors, the opera has always won the respect of musicians.
