BaL 10.12.16 - Puccini: La fanciulla del West

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

0930
Building a Library: Flora Willson sifts through some of the available recordings of Puccini’s opera La fanciulla del West.
Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, or Girl of the West, is set in a mining camp at the foot of the Cloudy Mountains, California. If it has fewer famous arias than other Puccini operas, it is greatly admired for its colourful orchestration with influences from composers such as Debussy and Richard Strauss, while at the same time having a unique sound world. The opera was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, in 1910. And Puccini himself thought it one of his greatest works. The conductor Arturo Toscanini called it a “great symphonic poem”.


Available recordings:

Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Cava, Attilio Barbesi, Giorgio Onesti, Giovanni Ciavola, Angelo Mercuriali, Silvio Maionica, Daniele Barioni, Virginio Assandri, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Mario Borriello, Giuseppe Morresi, Athos Cesarini, Bruno Cioni, Egidio Casolari, Piero de Palma, Lola Pedretti, Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Roma della Rai, Arturo Basile

Renata Tebaldi, Cornell MacNeil, Mario del Monaco, Giorgio Tozzi, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, Franco Capuana

Dorothy Kirsten, Richard Tucker, Anselmo Colzani, Metropolitan Opera, Fausto Cleva

Antonietta Stella, Gastone Limarilli, Anselmo Colzani, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Oliviero De Fabritiis (DVD)

�Mara Zampieri, Plácido Domingo, Juan Pons, Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Lorin Maazel (CD/DVD)

Birgit Nilsson, João Gibin, Andreà Mongelli, Orchestra e coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Lovro von Matacic

Carol Neblett, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Zubin Mehta

Eleanor Steber, Gian Giacomo Guelfi, Piero De Palma, Vito Susca, Enzo Viaro, Brenno Ristori, Lido Pettini, Virgilio Carbonari, Valiano Natali, Enzo Guagni, Agostino Ferrin, Giorgio Giorgetti, Paolo Washington, Laura Didier, Giorgio Tozzi, Mario Frosini, Alberto Lotti Camici, Mario Del Monaco, Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale, Fiorentino, Dimitri Mitropoulos

Nina Stemme, Aleksandrs Antonenko, John Lundgren, Orchestra & Male Chorus of the Stockholm Royal Opera House, Pier Giorgio Morandi (DVD/Blu-ray)

Eva-Maria Westbroek, Lucio Gallo, Zoran Todorovich, Roman Sadnik, Diogenes Randes, Stephen Gadd, Tijl Faveyts, Ellen Rabiner, André Morsch, Roger Smeets, Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera & Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Rizzi (DVD/Blu-ray))

Plácido Domingo, Carol Neblett, The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Nello Santi (DVD)

Plácido Domingo, Barbara Daniels, Sherrill Milnes, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Leonard Slatkin (DVD)

Daniela Dessì, Fabio Armiliato, Lucio Gallo, Orchestra and Chorus Città Lirica, Alberto Veronesi (CD/DVD)

Gigliola Frazzoni, Franco Corelli, Tito Gobbi, Teatro alla Scala Chorus and Orchestra, Antonino Votto

Eva-Maria Westbroek (Minnie), Ashley Holland (Jack Rance), Carlo Ventre (Dick Johnson) & Peter Marsh (Nick), Frankfurt Opera and the Museum Orchestra, Sebastian Weigle

Jonas Kaufmann, Nina Stemme, Tomasz Konieczny, Orchester & Chor der Wiener Staatsoper, Franz Welser-Most (DVD/Blu-ray)

[Barbirollians]

0930
Building a Library: Flora Willson sifts through some of the available recordings of Puccini’s opera La fanciulla del West.
Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, or Girl of the West, is set in a mining camp at the foot of the Cloudy Mountains, California. If it has fewer famous arias than other Puccini operas, it is greatly admired for its colourful orchestration with influences from composers such as Debussy and Richard Strauss, while at the same time having a unique sound world. The opera was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, in 1910. And Puccini himself thought it one of his greatest works. The conductor Arturo Toscanini called it a “great symphonic poem”.


Available recordings:

Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Cava, Attilio Barbesi, Giorgio Onesti, Giovanni Ciavola, Angelo Mercuriali, Silvio Maionica, Daniele Barioni, Virginio Assandri, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Mario Borriello, Giuseppe Morresi, Athos Cesarini, Bruno Cioni, Egidio Casolari, Piero de Palma, Lola Pedretti, Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Roma della Rai, Arturo Basile

Renata Tebaldi, Cornell MacNeil, Mario del Monaco, Giorgio Tozzi, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, Franco Capuana

Dorothy Kirsten, Richard Tucker, Anselmo Colzani, Metropolitan Opera, Fausto Cleva

Antonietta Stella, Gastone Limarilli, Anselmo Colzani, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Oliviero De Fabritiis (DVD)

�Mara Zampieri, Plácido Domingo, Juan Pons, Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Lorin Maazel (CD/DVD)

Birgit Nilsson, João Gibin, Andreà Mongelli, Orchestra e coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Lovro von Matacic

Carol Neblett, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Zubin Mehta

Eleanor Steber, Gian Giacomo Guelfi, Piero De Palma, Vito Susca, Enzo Viaro, Brenno Ristori, Lido Pettini, Virgilio Carbonari, Valiano Natali, Enzo Guagni, Agostino Ferrin, Giorgio Giorgetti, Paolo Washington, Laura Didier, Giorgio Tozzi, Mario Frosini, Alberto Lotti Camici, Mario Del Monaco, Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale, Fiorentino, Dimitri Mitropoulos

Nina Stemme, Aleksandrs Antonenko, John Lundgren, Orchestra & Male Chorus of the Stockholm Royal Opera House, Pier Giorgio Morandi (DVD/Blu-ray)

Eva-Maria Westbroek, Lucio Gallo, Zoran Todorovich, Roman Sadnik, Diogenes Randes, Stephen Gadd, Tijl Faveyts, Ellen Rabiner, André Morsch, Roger Smeets, Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera & Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Rizzi (DVD/Blu-ray))

Plácido Domingo, Carol Neblett, The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Nello Santi (DVD)

Plácido Domingo, Barbara Daniels, Sherrill Milnes, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Leonard Slatkin (DVD)

Daniela Dessì, Fabio Armiliato, Lucio Gallo, Orchestra and Chorus Città Lirica, Alberto Veronesi (CD/DVD)

Gigliola Frazzoni, Franco Corelli, Tito Gobbi, Teatro alla Scala Chorus and Orchestra, Antonino Votto

Eva-Maria Westbroek (Minnie), Ashley Holland (Jack Rance), Carlo Ventre (Dick Johnson) & Peter Marsh (Nick), Frankfurt Opera and the Museum Orchestra, Sebastian Weigle

Jonas Kaufmann, Nina Stemme, Tomasz Konieczny, Orchester & Chor der Wiener Staatsoper, Franz Welser-Most (DVD/Blu-ray)

The Steber /Mitropoulos is terrific .

[pastoralguy]

This is a work that has always intrigued me but, alas, despite having picked up a sealed Domingo version on cd for a £ some years ago, I've never heard it.

Hopefully, this BaL will tempt me to open it.

[Conchis]

This is a work that has always intrigued me but, alas, despite having picked up a sealed Domingo version on cd for a £ some years ago, I've never heard it.

Hopefully, this BaL will tempt me to open it.

Probably my favourite Puccini opera. The fact that it's comparatively unfamiliar probably helps.

The Domingo/Vaness version is very good, indeed, but my vote would go to Tebaldi/Del Monaco/Capuana.

[Barbirollians]

It includes the famous tune that somehow seems to turn up in the Phantom of the Opera !

[visualnickmos]

It includes the famous tune that somehow seems to turn up in the Phantom of the Opera !

If you can't be original - copy!

[BBMmk2]

I haven't really delved into opera much, basically because it's the length of them sometimes, especially Wagner. Now my concentration levels have improved I may do so, so tis be an interesting BaL.

[mikealdren]

This has to be the first BaL where half the recordings are DVD/BluRay. A sign that we are getting more recordings of live performances. Is this because rarer operas do well live but don't sell so well on CD?

Mike

[Nick Armstrong]

Looking forward to this - Puccini's writing is the only Italian opera I've really ever been able to take, and I've always been intrigued by this one and meant to investigate, without ever having got round to doing so. I agree with Conchis, the relative unfamiliarity will be helpful for me (I'd say that my favourite Puccini these days is La Rondine, not least as the big numbers aren't over-exposed). I respond especially to the compositional style sharing aspects with Richard Strauss or Debussy, and if that's the case with La fanciulla, that's even more appealing. La Rondine seems to me to share a lot with possibly my favourite Strauss opera, Capriccio (plus there's the wink from the Italian to the German with the quote from Salome...).

[DoctorT]

Probably my favourite Puccini opera. The fact that it's comparatively unfamiliar probably helps.

The Domingo/Vaness version is very good, indeed, but my vote would go to Tebaldi/Del Monaco/Capuana.

Is there such a version? the ones listed above have Carol Neblett with Domingo. I've been enjoying their recording with Mehta over the last few days

[MrGongGong]

It includes the famous tune that somehow seems to turn up in the Phantom of the Opera !

ALLEGEDLY

To quote mr Waters

"Bastard. It probably is actionable. It really is! But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew f*cking Lloyd Webber."

[underthecountertenor]

Excellent BaL from Flora Wilson.

[gradus]

I agree, I thoroughly enjoyed it, an excellent review though I disagreed with some of the judgements. I thought the Tebaldi/Del Monico took some beating but missed the very end - who 'won''?

[Stanley Stewart]

Domingo/Neblett- Mehta, Covent Garden, 1977 - a spectacular production, I recall.

[BBMmk2]

Well, not too sure about this one.