La Fanciulla del West

As I've said in a handful of previous opera-related posts, opera is not an art form with which I am well-versed. I can't pick out the famous arias and place them in the appropriate masterpiece. While it's a medium I respect, it's a medium I encounter somewhat ignorantly, which makes it a tricky subject to review for blog purposes.

I can't say much about Fanciulla that would demonstrate that I know what I'm talking about, but I can say that the show is fun! Prior to this experience, I had no idea Puccini wrote an opera set in the American West. What a surprise!  I think of most operas as velvet-draped, Grecian, or Shakespearean-derived affairs, far removed from any American sensibility.  But this is a gun-slinging (so much gun-slinging!) love story with all the swagger of a traditional western. There are heavy boots, saloons, shiny pistols, barrels of gold and whiskey, bandits, and star-crossed lovers meeting on the road to Monterey.  If a John Wayne baritone had moseyed onstage, I wouldn't have been surprised.

The familiar (to Americans such as myself who don't consider themselves opera know-it-alls) setting eases an opera newbie into the experience, and for that reason I think this would be a solid choice for a first opera.  While you won't pick out any famous arias, if you listen closely you will hear the piece that inspired a lawsuit between Puccini's estate and Andrew Lloyd Webber. That alone is reason enough for the Broadway nerd to dive into this performance.

The picture above was taken during Fanciulla's social media preview night and does not do the set justice. It's a see-for-yourself set!

Minnesota Opera's La Fanciulla del West  plays from Sept. 20th- Sept. 28th at the Ordway in St. Paul.

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