Puccini: La Fanciulla del West
Soloists
La Scala Milan
Lorin Maazel
Puccini was still a little suspect as a serious composer when I was at University - Kerman’s description of Tosca as a ‘shabby little shocker’ was an extreme view perhaps but not completely a typical of attitudes of the time. Since then thankfully things have changed and we now recognise Puccini as a composer of real substance. Last year I included his Il Tabarro in my project. That was a real discovery and so I was looking forward to hearing this opera for the first time. I was not disappointed. This is a truly amazing score which shows Puccini birding effortless the world of late 19th century Italian opera with modernism. Much of the music belonged in the world of Louise or Pelleas. The harmonic pallets is very wide and the orchestration constantly inventive.
So what is this this not performed nearly as often as the other major Puccini works? First of all there is some oddness about an Italian composer setting an opera during the Californian gold rush with references to the Pony Express and other colloquialisms sounding very out of place in Italian. Secondly perhaps the pacing is rather slower than we expect from Puccini. One can imagine the audience at the first performance at the Met starting to look at their watches and wondering when Caruso is going to appeal - the scene setting, though marvellous in its way, does take a long time. Then it has to be admitted that the opera doesn’t have the big hit tunes one expects in Puccini. There are lots of lyrical moments of course but the action doesn’t really stop to allow for arias. This recording is of a live performance and one can feel the sense of relief midway through Act 2 when they finally get to applaud a tenor solo - the applause goes on for ages and though Domingo’s performance is superb one senses that it wouldn’t have got the same level of applause had there been a succession of applause moments throughout the work.
So a fascinating work with many really impaired and dramatic passages and a wonderful quiet end as the hero and heroine walk off into the sunset.. This is one of those operas where ithe heroine doesn’t die in the final scene. I’m so glad that I have added this to my collection of Puccini operas.
