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Fanciulla del West
ROH - London
By FT.com / September 19, 2005 02:52 AM
ANDREW CLARK
When the only available woman claims never to have been kissed, and then stops a mob from lynching the man she loves, you know you are in the land of operatic hokum. Yet Lafanciulla del West, Puccini's "American" opera, is scarcely more far-fetched than any other. What counts is the veracity of the character-archetypes and the drama quotient in the music. On that score Puccini knew what he was doing.
At least that was the impression left by Fanciulla at Covent Garden on Thursday night, the opening performance of London's opera season. In lesser hands it can indeed seem contrived. But the Royal Opera's production, first staged in 1977, is a classic - almost on a par with the Zeffirelli Tosca that has now inexplicably been dumped. It will be a long time before Fanciulla shares a similar fate, if only because it is not popular enough to withstand constant revivals: this was its first showing for 11 years.
Even without a starry cast, the show came across as good as new. In part that is a tribute to the flair and durability of Piero Faggioni's staging. But it is also a sign of an opera company firing on all cylinders. This is just as well: with English National Opera showing signs of recovery after three seasons of gloom, London's operatic landscape is again turning into a two-horse race. Covent Garden may have the money and the glamour, but at least on paper ENO has the artistic edge in its 2005-06 line-up.
ENO opened on Friday night with a world premiere of Gerald Barry's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (see review, right). The company has secured the services of film director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) for a new Madam Butterfly in November. Later it will showcase Felicity Lott and Simon Keenlyside - singers you would expect to find at Covent Garden.
By contrast the Royal Opera seems to be drawing breath after the initial burst of energy fuelled by its workaholic music director, Antonio Pappano. At the halfway stage its Ring is mired in expense and stage clutter. There are some solid-looking revivals, plus a new Onegin with Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Rolando Villazon. But there is little sign of artistic "attitude", bar a US-style desire to keep the widest number of people happy.
Yet the most high-minded critic would find little to carp about in this Fanciulla. Based on David Belasco's play The Girl of the Golden West, the opera can disorientate those who pigeonhole Puccini as a purveyor of big tunes and tragedy. This is his only through-composed work: it avoids cues for applause, its harmonies are edging into the 20th century. The confrontation and catharsis that are Puccini's trademark wield their powerful wand - especially in a staging as focused as this. Even the most sentimental scenes, such as Minnie's Bible lesson, add to the patina of tough-and-soft, harsh-and-tender - the epitome of which is Minnie herself.
Andrea Gruber understands this: she captures the clever-and-naive, brave-and-vulnerable contradictions in the character in a way that makes her perfectly human. There may be lingering signs of Puccini's little-girl syndrome (Butterfly, Mimi, Liu) beneath the gutsy exterior, and you would scarcely call Gruber's soprano melting. But she doesn't screech, and she shows us where the real gold lies - in Minnie's heart.
In José Cura she has a Dick Johnson worth dying for. This is the best performance Cura has given in London: the selfish outlaw comes good with a voice that rings out handsomely without milking the notes, with a style of acting that never stoops to melodrama. Mark Delavan's Jack Rance is undercooked: not enough colour in the voice, not enough breadth to the character.
Thanks to Pappano's wonderfully idiomatic conducting, there is never any doubt that Fanciulla is as Italian as the soil of Lucca - despite Puccini's would-be Americanisms and the comic inter-jections of English and Indian speech. Far from playing up any brash Broadway undertones in the music, as I feared he might, Pappano lets his native genes take command: he knows exactly when to hold on to a note (after "Whisky per tutti" in Act 1, for example) and how to "place" the Act 2 climax. On this form, who would not bet on the Royal Opera maintaining pole position?
*
La Fanciulla del West4 stars Royal Opera House, London
Andrew Clements
Saturday September 17, 2005
Piero Faggioni's 1977 staging of Puccini's spaghetti western, La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) hasn't been seen at Covent Garden for 10 years, but it has remained fondly regarded for the sheer monumentality of its sets by James Bond movie designer Ken Adam.
Refurbished for this revival it is the operatic equivalent of a listed building, handsome to look at, but not quite the last word in modern amenities. And there is a price to pay for the sheer scale of the spectacle: even with the ROH's modern stage machinery, the sets still take an age to change, the performance lasts well over three and a half hours, and the dramatic momentum seeps away.
But in any case it's the sort of show where fine-grained, psychologically penetrating drama would be out of place, and there is little suggestion of subtlety in any of the performances. Puccini's characters are mostly stereotypes, and don't gain much depth from this production - the gold-rush miners who throng Minnie's bar in the first act, and who are determined to lynch Dick Johnson in the third, are cartoonish (surely the blacking-up of the roving minstrel might have been discreetly dropped?), while the principals aren't given much perspective either.
As Johnson, José Cura has all the requisite swagger and testosterone-packed tone, and sings his arias in an effective, stand-and-deliver way, while Mark Delavan makes Jack Rance into a genuinely troubled character, if not an especially imposing one. Andrea Gruber's Minnie is more of a disappointment; she certainly has the vocal resources, but little of the presence that puts flesh on the bare dramatic bones.
Yet the score is glorious, and its bright, high-definition orchestral sound suits Antonio Pappano's conducting perfectly. He can't do much about the dramatic slack in the first act, but the rest of the opera is taut and luminously well played, and the production itself is certainly a collector's item.
*
A gold nugget
REVIEW - LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST
COVENT GARDEN By HELEN LAWRENCE
PUCCINI'S wild west melodrama, La Fanciulla del West (based on David Belasco’s play, The Girl of the Golden West) is one of his most interesting works, exploring new directions and responding to the musical ferment of the early 20th century.
Without the sweeping melodies of some of his other operas it is less popular and has not been heard at Covent Garden for 11 years.
Piero Faggioni has returned to revive his splendid 1977 production in the magnificent sets by Kenneth Adam, the James Bond film designer. Set in the Californian Gold Rush, the story is a love triangle between a gun-toting, saloon bar proprietress who has never been kissed, the bandit who is saved by her love and repents, and his rival the Sherriff.
As the heroine Minnie, Andrea Gruber’s voice has all the notes but is not ideally focussed. A tremolo somewhat obscures pitch, especially in the important middle register which carries the burden of the role. However, she succeeds in portraying the character with sympathy. José Cura cuts a dash as the bandit Ramirez, with handsome appearance and burnished tone. Mark Delavan brought authentic American swagger to Jack Rance, the Sheriff, but was somewhat underpowered vocally.
The minor characters were all superbly drawn, with, among others, veterans Robert Lloyd, bringing authority and sonorous tone to Ashby the Wells Fargo agent, and Francis Egerton recreating his touching cameo as Nick.
The chorus (director Renato Balsadonna), play a vital part in the story and they are quite outstanding, both musically and in the teamwork of their highly skilled and responsive stage craft. A wonderful display of ensemble work at its finest.
Completing a most enjoyable performance, music director Antonio Pappano draws wonderfully warm and passionate playing of this rich score from the orchestra, which is in top form.
*
La Fanciulla Del West, Royal Opera House, London
Gunfight at the ROH corral
By Edward Seckerson
Published: 19 September 2005
You wouldn't expect too much of an entrance from someone called Minnie, but, at the sound of gunshots, Puccini's "girl of the golden West" sweeps into the Polka Saloon to a thrilling deployment of one of the composer's most sumptuous tunes. This original spaghetti western is full of them. But there's only one Minnie - a woman alone in a world of men - and Puccini, that most natural of all musical dramatists, made certain that her entrance would be one we'd remember.
And yet La Fanciulla del West has always been the big sleeper among Puccini operas. It doesn't parade big numbers like the others in his canon but rather presents an integrated, through-composed musical melodrama of exciting richness and virtuosity. It's a company piece, full of tiny but telling cameo roles in a "cast of thousands". Perhaps for that reason, few have it in their repertoire. Even fewer can boast a production like this.
The Royal Opera has jealously hung on to it since 1977 when the designer Ken ("James Bond") Adams's gigantic, wide-screen, movie-ready sets first took our breath away. They still do. The Polka Saloon looks solid enough to have survived the Gold Rush itself. Never mind that the intervals are longer than at least one of the acts - sets like this weren't built (or rebuilt) for quick-change, but they were built to last.
The director Piero Faggioni has returned to brush up all the detail of his famous production. It's the kind of work that beautifully complements Puccini's brave attempts at all-out naturalism. In act one, especially, it's very filmic, very busy, very fluid.
In the pit Antonio Pappano and the Royal Opera Orchestra set down a magnificent soundtrack. The dynamic, sharply observant Pappano is as alive to the score's myriad intricacies as to its blockbusting melodramatics. And there can be no bigger compliment to the chorus and small-part principals that it is simply impossible to distinguish between them. They are as one ensemble.
So what of those "above the title" in the opening credits? Well, Andrea Gruber's Minnie is certainly robust. The American soprano looks and sounds like she could pack a six-shooter and break up a bar-brawl. But there is more to Minnie than first meets the eye and ear and Gruber doesn't give us a huge amount beyond strapping determination and big notes. And some of those are a little unruly above the stave - her laugh of triumph as she throws down the winning poker hand in act two might work better with the sound turned down - or off.
It's a paradox that an American soprano should lack the requisite Italian style for this piece. But it is a spaghetti western and I wanted more enticement and beauty from Gruber. I wasn't touched by her back-story in act one and only moved by the final scene because Puccini makes so damn sure of it.
As the wily sheriff Jack Rance, the American baritone Mark Delavan is physically and vocally pretty formidable. His moment of defeat in the crucial poker game is full of silent pent-up fury, though I've never really believed that he wouldn't see through Minnie's blatant cheating. It would take more than a couple of aces tucked under her garter to get one over on this lecher.
But the "prize", of course, is Dick Johnson, alias the bandit Ramerrez - and Jose Cura, looking as though he'd been built specifically for this role, is the best he has ever been. His animal magnetism counts for a lot here and, since the vocal requirements are all about swarthy, full-on, heroics, he was in his element, being resoundingly butch.
This is a smashing show, then. And Minnie does get her man - even if they walk, rather than ride, into the dawn, rather than into the sunset.
*
Kenneth Adam's refurbished sets for Royal
Opera's seventh revival of their 1977 production of La Fanciulla,
wear very well after almost thirty years; they're
elaborate, naturalistic and still take ages to change between the
opera's three acts.
A century on, Puccini’s improbable but ambitious
Gold Rush opera, The Girl of the Golden West, is still a rare visitor to
the opera house. For its opening production of the new season, Covent
Garden dusted down the 1977 Piero Faggioni staging, last seen more than
a decade ago. 
The 19th-century Californian gold rush
comes to vivid life in the ultra-realism of Piero Faggioni’s 28-year-old
production, which not long ago seemed consigned to history but has now
been lovingly refurbished. As long as you don’t mind story-book opera –
and this is hardly an obvious work for deconstructionist directors to
tackle – this Fanciulla is a spectacular evening with all the
hallmarks of Faggioni’s old-fashioned master’s touch. His lighting is
beautiful.
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Puccini’s ‘symphonic’ curtain raiser for
Fanciulla is by no means a full-blown overture, but its slightly
self-conscious panorama of leitmotifs is often a good indication of how
the drama will go. The Royal Opera orchestra under Antonio Pappano
immediately made a bold statement, announcing an interpretation that
would be slower and less urgent than is usual, but would as compensation
bring out added layers of instrumental detail, effects that can often go
unnoticed in this most studied and intricate of Puccini’s scores. The
dividends continued throughout the evening: again and again
accompaniment figures and unusual combinations emerged newly relevant,
revealing how elaborate and subtle Puccini’s orchestral thought had
become by this stage in his career.
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