Season opener strikes gold
By Juliet Schoen/ Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Opera has opened the new season with a bang-literally. With Western sets that would do Hollywood proud, the ambitious company is offering Puccini’s “The Girl of the Golden West” and giving it a rip-snortin’ production. It has just about everything but Gary Cooper.
Each of the three acts has its own spectacular scenic design, starting with a saloon (what else?) where the Gold Rush miners (not minors) play poker, drink whisky and shoot it up for fun. Sparing nothing, the production stages a pretty realistic brawl with shootin’, punchin’ and breakaway furniture.
Minnie, the girl of the title, is the owner of this rowdy establishment. Although one would expect the woman owner of a bar to be a combination of Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley, this is a different character altogether.
Sweet, romantic and virginal, she is everybody’s darling, even holding Bible classes for the homesick men.
This bittersweet Gold Rush story is based on a David Belasco play and typically sets up the heroine for a calamitous affair. She rejects the advances of the sheriff, Jack Rance (simply because he’s married), and falls in love with a stranger named Dick Johnson who turns out to be a wanted outlaw.
The second act takes place in Minnie’s wooded cabin, which is surrounded by pine-covered mountains. The feeling of authenticity is amazing. (Smoke even comes out of the wood-burning stove). Here she meets the outlaw and a rather tepid love scene takes place.
The final act opens on a wonderful Western street, with shabby buildings, broken windows, gaslights and the works.
Of course there is more to opera than settings. We have the lovely melodic music of Puccini and the singing of two veterans of the opera stage, Placido Domingo and Catherine Malfitano. Domingo looks as svelte as he can possibly get as the outlaw and eats up the role. Forgetting that he is the artistic director of the company, the miners shoot him, beat him and almost hang him during the course of the action. Domingo, the singer, is still in great voice and his rendition of “Let her think I’m free and far away” (in Italian) brought tears to the eyes of sensitive listeners. Malfitano, long with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, is a delight as Minnie (pronounced Meeny). She has a great range and fits into the role as easily as she fits into her leather culottes.
A casting director’s perfect choice for Sheriff Jack Rance, Wolfgang Brendel can sing as well as act.
Seldom has a chorus earned so much applause. The miners, in their shabby Western attire, helped to make the evening so much fun.
Gian Carlo Del Monaco, persona non grata because of “tantrums,” was originally in charge of the production, but Elena Kalabakos has taken over and done a superlative job. Michael Scott, deservedly criticized for his sets of “Turandot,” comes through with a winner this time.
Simone Young conducted the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra vigorously and William Vendice led the excellent chorus.
The two horses that made an appearance behaved admirably, but their names are not listed in the credits.