Tuesday, July 26, 2016

La fanciulla del West (2009)



La fanciulla del West – Italian title

A 2009 Netherlands television production [De Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam)]
Producer: Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Director: Misjel Vermeiren
Story: Guelfo Civinini, Carlo Zangarini
Teleplay: David Belasco
Photography: [color]
Music: Giacomo Puccini        
Running time: 160 minutes

Cast:
Minnie - Eva-Maria Westbroek
Jack Rance - Lucio Gallo
Dick Johnson - Zoran Todorovich
Nick - Roman Sadnik
Ashby - Diogenes Randes
Sonora - Stephen Gadd
Trin - Jean-Léon Klostermann
Sid - Leo Geers
Bello - Peter Arnik
Harry - Pascal Pittie
Joe - Ruud Fiselier
Happy - Harry Teeuwen
Larkens - Patrick Schramm
Billy Jackrabbit - Tijl Faveyts
Wowkle - Ellen Rabiner
Jake Wallace - André Morsch
José Castro - Roger Smeets
Pony Express Rider - Erik Slik
Conductor – Carlo Rizzi



The opera tells the tale of gold miners, their loves and their adventures. Minnie is well-liked and runs a bar frequented by the miners. The sheriff only has eyes for her. But, when the mysterious Dick Johnson arrives in town, Minnie falls in love with him instead.

The Cloudy Mountains are not the setting for Nikolaus Lehnhoff's staging, which transposes the plot into 1950s USA. The mining district of 1849-1850 is replaced by the Wall Street stock market and gold miners become regulars at an underground bar. In the pit, the orchestra, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, manages to do justice to Puccini's rich composition without ever drowning out the singers.


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