Pizzicato 5 out of 5

On December 10, 1910, La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West) premiered in the Met Puccini’s New York opera. Emmy Destinn and Enrico Caruso sang the leading roles. The audience gave the singers and the composer a triumph that was rare in this famous house. Nevertheless, the opera remained a stepchild in the repertoire.

In this new recording, Lawrence Foster’s tense, dramatic, somber, and yet also extremely lyrical interpretation is what makes the recording so appealing. Although there is no death scene in La Fanciulla del West, unlike other Puccini operas, there is something consistently negative about the whole plot of melancholy, sadness, and dissatisfaction, which is only opposed by the honest, combative love of Minnie. As a commentator on the plot, the orchestra becomes another character in the opera.

Melody Moore can ideally embody the saloon owner Minnie. In this opera, she tries to take as much as possible out of even the shortest movements. Marius Vlad can’t let Domingo be forgotten, but he’s an excellent actor.

It is mainly because of Lawrence Foster’s conducting that this new production deserves interest. It does justice to a work that has often been unjustly criticized, but whose qualities were once praised by Anton Webern (in a letter to Arnold Schönberg) for a reason. There is “not a gram of kitsch” in it, said Webern, and that is exactly what distinguishes Foster’s interpretation. It is a piece from life, tight, dramatic, and often poignant.

Remy Franck - Source