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.

YouTube vocal clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_wep45F8dA