Live from the Metropolitan Opera La fanciulla del West (1977– ) Online

This is the least popular of Puccini's eight mature operas. I had not previously seen it before I was given the DVD for Christmas. This production is from the Met, where the opera was premiered in 1910. Minnie, the Girl of the Golden West is sung by soprano Barbara Daniels. Placido Domingo is Dick Johnson her lover, alias the bandit Ramerres. Sherrill Milnes is Jack Rance, the sheriff who also loves Minnie.

Cowboys singing in Italian are, perhaps, a little hard to take. This may be an irrational prejudice: we are quite happy with French, Chinese and Japanese characters singing in Italian in Puccini's other operas. I suppose it is even possible that there were communities of Italian miners in the American West. These miners are very Italian though, they sing about missing their mammas. One miner has a sorrowful song whose words translate as: "After so long, will my dog recognise me…"

Barbara Daniels' Minnie is the only woman in town. When not running the saloon and the casino she gives the miners reading lessons and bible instruction. This is where I began to suspect that Puccini had made a mistake in basing the opera on another one of David Belasco's dud plays, The heartrending music in Madama Butterfly takes our mind off the essential naffness of the story. In the Golden Girl, Puccini gives us no big tunes or show-stopping moments so the implausibility of the plot and characters is all too clear. The long first act, set in the bar of the Polka Saloon is an ensemble piece that looks back to the first two acts of La Boheme and hints of what is to come in Gianni Schicchi but La Fanciulla has none of the brilliance of these two pieces.

This is one Minnie that has been around the block a few times but when Dick kisses her she sings: "You have taken my first kiss…" Still, it all ends happily when the kind-hearted miners forgive Dick his banditry and he and Minnie are allowed to walk away together into the sunset. I think this left most of the Met audience as unmoved as it left me. With nothing worth clapping, they fell back on their usual ploy and applauded the scenery.

Out of Puccini's operas, La Fanciulla Del West is perhaps his most underrated. That doesn't mean best though, La Fanciulla Del West lacks the poignancy, complexity and heart of Manon Lescaut, La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly and Turandot, but the opera isn't completely lacking in those qualities. Yes I agree that the story is interesting if fairly standard and the characters aren't always as memorable or plausible as they could have been.

But when it comes to the music, while not instant classics like Nessun Dorma, Te Deum, Un Bel Vedremo and Che Glenida Manina, it is basically typical Puccini. What I mean by that is that while having some haunting and somewhat unusual parts it is beautiful, melodious and written and performed with a lot of heart, the highlights for me being Jack Rance's aria and Ch'ella mi creda, the latter of which being perhaps the opera's best known aria. This 1992 production is beautifully done, the photography is never overdone or sloppy and the sets and costumes are evoked wonderfully. The orchestration is just as nimble as the melodies that form the crux of this pleasant score, and the conducting is every bit as impressive.

All three leads are superb a vast majority of the time and do a fine job bringing to life their implausible characters, and I was quite impressed with the rest of the ensemble cast. The best of the three is Barbara Daniels as titular character Minnie. She is everything Minnie should be, beautiful with a warm presence, as well as being very passionate and touching in the second act, and a lovely tone to her voice.

I have always been a big fan of Placido Domingo, especially after seeing him in Zeffirelli's Otello, which is for me one of the all-time great opera films and Domingo just owns that role. Seeing him as Dick Johnson has thankfully not made me change that. Not his best role by all means, but he is still wonderful. Appearance-wise he is very dashing, he still has that magnificent presence and that beautiful, powerful voice still captivates.

Sherrill Milnes is an interesting Jack Rance, and plays the role with an intelligence and brio showing notable chemistry with Daniels, particularly in act 2 where he is quite scary when he is rough with her, where he doesn't hold back and literally goes for it. However vocally he is the weakest of the three leads, he does sing beautifully-especially in his first aria- and overall it is one of his better and more musical performances after his vocal crisis in the early 80s but like in 1989's Aida(though he is better here) he does sometimes sound flat and tired. If you hear him as Scarpia, Posa, Renato, Iago, Rigoletto, Tonio and Figaro and in Lucia di Lamermoor, Il Trovatore and Ernani, you do hear a difference in pitch and certainty, on all these they are more precise.

Overall though, I really enjoyed it. My advice is forget the story and watch for the music and performances, and the beginning which is great fun and sets the tone of the opera nicely, they more than make up for it. Also the ending with Minnie and Johnson going off together leaving Rance alone in defeat was a great touch. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox