Sheriff Jack Rance steps in to administer a little frontier justice. But Sid is caught cheating, and the miners threaten to hang him. Miners known as Happy, Harry, Handsome and Joe sit down to play a game of cards, with a fellow named Sid as the overseer. Minnie is preparing to lead Bible studies, assisted by two Indians, Billy Jackrabbit and his girlfriend Wowkle. Nick, the bartender, greets miners who wander in for drinks. In Fanciulla, Minnie takes gun, and fate, firmly in hand.Īs Dick Johnson is about to hang, Minnie jumps in to save him, in Glimmerglass Opera's production of The Girl of the Golden West.ĪCT ONE: The opera is set during the Gold Rush of 1849, and opens at sunset in the Polka Saloon, owned by a woman named Minnie. The character of Minnie was also something new for Puccini: She's a tough cookie, unlike the sad, put-upon, mostly doomed leading ladies of his other operas. It was a popular and critical success from the beginning, but it does contain some of Puccini's most modern-sounding music and not everyone takes a liking to it the first time around. Emmy Destinn was Minnie and Arturo Toscanini conducted. Dick Johnson was sung by the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso. Puccini's Fanciulla was premiered in 1910 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and it was an all-star affair. Puccini was a big fan of Belasco, who also wrote the play that inspired Madame Butterfly, and there's still a Broadway theater bearing Belasco's name. The story is based on an American drama by David Belasco. It's as though an Italian potboiler has somehow landed in Deadwood! Surely, this is the only opera to feature phrases like, "Whiskey per tutti!" and "Hello regazzi," and to have one of its crucial moments decided by, "una partita a poker." In this one, Puccini's signature "verismo" style comes face to face with America's Wild West. Still, Puccini may have outdone himself with La Fanciulla del West - The Girl of the Golden West. The last act of Manon Lescaut takes place on a "vast, arid plain," which somehow turns up on the outskirts of New Orleans. Madame Butterfly is set in Japan, around 1900. Giacomo Puccini was never shy when it came to writing operas with exotic settings - or at least settings that seemed exotic to European audiences. Sellars's previous collaborations with Adams have included premiere productions of Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer and Doctor Atomic (for which Sellars also wrote the libretto).Emily Pulley. According to Sellars, "These true stories of the Forty-Niners are overwhelming in their heroism, passion and cruelty, telling tales of racial conflicts, colorful and humorous exploits, political strife and struggles to build anew a life and to decide what it would mean to be American." Adams wrote, "To be able to set to music the authentic voices of these people, whether from their letters or their songs or from newspaper accounts from their time, is a great privilege for me." Sellars, who also directed the opera, conceived the libretto while doing research for a production of Giacomo Puccini's 1910 opera La fanciulla del West (based on David Belasco's 1905 play The Girl of the Golden West), which also deals with the gold rush period. The libretto is also sourced from other literature of the period, including newspaper articles and the writings of Mark Twain. Clappe published the letters under the pen name Dame Shirley. The opera is inspired by the 1851/1852 letters of Louise Clappe, who lived for a year and a half in the mining settlement of Rich Bar (now Diamondville, California) during the California Gold Rush.