See America First - California, Part 1
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- roslinds
- ibass
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» roslinds - La Fanciulla
La Fancuilla del West has often been called the spaghetti western. This 3 act opera , set in the 1849 gold rush days is most unusual for Puccini... I believe that it is available in both Video and DVD for Puccini fans. Do you have any information or historical insight about Puccini and his choice of this title? The article was wonderful ... Thanks... Classical Diva-- posted by roslinds
» ibass - Re: La Fanciulla
In response to message posted by roslinds:Hi Roslind -- Glad you liked the piece.
According to The Grove Dictionary of Opera, Puccini saw a performance of the David Belasco drama of nearly the same name (in English -- The Girl of the Golden West) when he visited New York in 1907. He didn't think much of the play but when an associate, Sybil Seligman -- who ultimately devised the Italian title for his opera -- pressed upon him an Italian translation of it, he had second thoughts about its possibilities and asked his publisher to arrange for not only the rights to set it, but to allow him to rework the story a bit.
According to Grove, he moved up the Bible class from the third act in Belasco, to the first act in the opera, and also collapsed the play's third and fourth acts into Act 3 of the opera. Carlo Zangarini was taken on to write the libretto, largely because his mother was American and I guess Puccini felt he would provide accurate details...though one would suspect that Mrs. Zangarini didn't have a whole lot of firsthand experience with the setting or kinds of characters the opera depicted!
The opera was the first world premiere ever held at the Metropolitan Opera House, and Puccini attended it. Caruso was the first Dick Johnson; Toscanini conducted. Again according to Grove, Puccini received 35 curtain calls. But perhaps when it lacked that star treatment to keep it rolling, the public wasn't as wild about the wild west as Puccini had hoped and the opera did not remain in general repertoire for some decades after its various worldwide premieres in Puccini's time.
An amusing postscript in Grove is that during WW I Italian troops adapted the 3rd Act aria "Ch'ella mi creda libero e lontano" as -- and I quote (remember Grove is a British product) "an equivalent to the English song 'It's a long way to Tipperary.'"
Iris
-- posted by ibass
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