patrikpen: A Transatlc Operation Cooperation in M&V 29 October 2017

A Transatlantic Operatic Cooperation

GIUSEPPE PENNISI on Puccini's
'La fanciulla del West' in Cagliari

Puccini's The Girl from the Golden West is a well-known opera. I've reviewed it a few times here over the last few years (eg 'A Difficult Score', 7 May 2016, 'A Marvelous Job', 29 December 2010 and 'Eyes Tight Shut', 22 July 2010). Nonetheless the production I saw and heard at the Cagliari Teatro Lirico [20 October 2017] is a landmark for organizational, musical, and staging reasons.

The Girl from the Golden West is a masterpiece, not performed as often as it ought to be because of the huge resources it demands: a gargantuan orchestra, three leads, quite special voices — a Wagnerian-Straussian soprano; a tenor with a strong central register; and an almost Verdian baritone — some fifteen soloists, each with a specific musical function and color, and an elaborate stage set almost as complex as that of a top class Western movie.

Svetla Vassileva as Minnie in Puccini's 'La fanciulla del West'. Photo © 2016 Priamo Tolu

The operation was masterminded by four theatres: those (in alphabetical order) of Cagliari, Charlotte, Lucca and New York. Other theatres joined, whereby eight theatres shared the cost and nearly forty scheduled performances will amortize it. Two of the theatres are American: Carolina Opera (where the production was shown in May) and New York City Opera (where it was staged in September). From Cagliari the production will go to Lucca (where Puccini was born), Pisa, Livorno, Modena and Ravenna. Who knows? Some other theatres, either Italian or American, may be attracted to lease it. In any event, this transatlantic operatic cooperation gives the very Italian Girl, composed on the Massaciuccoli lake near Lucca, an American flavor.

From left to right: Tatsuya Takahashi as Nick, Svetla Vassileva as Minnie and Manrico Signorini as Ashby in Puccini's 'La fanciulla del West'. Photo © 2016 Priamo Tolu. Click on the image for higher resolution

On the musical side, Puccini maintained his beloved pentatonic scale, but there are no 'arias' or music numbers as such, only two ariosi — one specifically requested by Caruso — and a grand concertato (Andante Sostenuto) in Act III when the protagonist, Minnie, addresses the miners to convince them to free her beloved Dick. It anticipated, in a way, the 'chit-chat' operas of Strauss and Janáček. It is hard to know whether and when the Moravian composer listened to Puccini's operas; they appear to have influenced his last years, eg from Kátia Kabanová on. The orchestral score is extremely complex as it involves about seventy different leitmotifs intertwined and overlapping (with one another) in a manner different from Wagner and similar to Debussy and to Janáček. However, to the best of my knowledge, whilst Puccini knew Pelléas, he and the Moravian composer never met and hardly knew anything of one another's attempts to change musical theatre. Hence, in 1910, the opera was seen as very modern, nearly experimental: it even includes, in Act II, a re-elaboration of the Tristan chord in E flat minor, not very different from that attempted, in 1899, by Arnold Schoenberg in Verlärkte Nacht.

The entry of Svetla Vassileva as Minnie in Act I of Puccini's 'La fanciulla del West'. Photo © 2016 Priamo Tolu

In spite of its innovative nature, the opera soon became a major hit and circulated among all the world's major opera houses. In the 1920 Met debut, the leads were Emmy Destinn, Enrico Caruso and Pasquale Amato, but in the pit there was Arturo Toscanini, an excellent conductor but with the habit of fitting the scores to his taste. In The Girl from the Golden West, Toscanini cut a duettino and a moment of the brawl among the miners, and simplified the orchestration. At La Scala, Riccardo Chailly intended to conduct the opera as Puccini had conceived it, but for the reasons explained here on 7 May 2016, sudden changes in the cast made it impossible. Thus, this Italian-American production is the first to propose it. With one exception: the duettino, which is not in the printed score. Donato Renzetti conducted the Teatro Lirico orchestra to perfection.

Marcello Giordani as Dick Johnson (left) and Roberto Frontali as Jack Rance in Puccini's 'La fanciulla del West'. Photo © 2016 Priamo Tolu

On the stage production side, Italian director Ivan Stefanutti and Michael Baumgarten, the American author of projections and lighting, did not attempt to imitate cowboy movies. They read the plot as a statement of sympathy and affection for all those people — not only the miners but also the three leads, Minnie, Dick and Jack — deemed to struggle and never win, but able to win when they make full use of their own personalities, as shown in the moving third act. The staging is simple: a limited amount of furniture and scenic projections of landscape; this will fit theatres with different sizes and stages.

Svetla Vassileva as Minnie and Marcello Giordani as Dick Johnson in Puccini's 'La fanciulla del West' at Teatro Lirico di Cagliari on 20 October 2017. Click on the image for higher resolution

Svetla Vassilleva was superb in emission, phrasing and acute. The other two leads — Marcello Giordani and Roberto Frontali — as well as all those in minor roles, were quite good.

Svetla Vassilleva was given ovations. All the others, the orchestra and the staging were warmly applauded.