by Giacomo Puccini
seen by live streaming from The Metropolitan Opera New York on 27 October 2018
Marco Armiliato conducts Giancarlo del Monaco's production of this opera, adapted from a play by David Belasco, with Eva-Maria Westbroek as Minnie (the eponymous heroine), Jonas Kaufmann as Dick Johnson (the bandit impelled to turn good) and Željko Lučić as Sheriff Jack Rance (a strong man thwarted in both love and what he sees as justice).
Puccini wrote the opera as a commission for the Met, where it was first performed in 1910 with Caruso in the tenor role. No pressure, then. for the Met to deliver the goods now, and one sensed a certain self-satisfaction in the detailed realism of the setting, complete with characters turning up on horseback whenever possible - some to the Polka Saloon in the first act, and both Minnie and Dick Johnson to Minnie's cabin in the second (sets and costumes by Michael Scott). It all helped to emphasise the Wild West (or Californian gold-rush) setting; though the saloon was doubtless improbably large in order to fill the stage.
The story is melodramatic, from the rather sentimental view of the bar-room crowd of miners passing round the hat to finance the return of a failed miner to his home, to the romance between Minnie and Dick and its transformative effect on Dick's morality, to the final climax when Minnie manages to persuade a lynch mob to change its mind on account of all she has done for them in the past. But all this is more or less beside the point when it underpins such gorgeous lyrical music.
The crowd scenes were very well managed, and the cameo roles of various miners and the barkeeper were well sung and individualistically portrayed. The main burden, of course, lies on the principals, and all three were excellent. Željko Lučić sang the sheriff with the right mix of passion, sense of entitlement and baffled rage at being thwarted; only his final impotence at the collapse of all his hopes looked a bit false, but that is out of any singer's or actor's control. Eva-Maria Westbroek was an impassioned Minnie, both naively idealistic about love and thoroughly down-to-earth when it comes to managing in a masculine world (there is only one other woman, in a tiny role, to be seen in the entire opera). Jonas Kaufmann was a fine cowboy bandit, charismatic in style, and singing beautifully. Most important of all, there was a real chemistry between him and Eva-Maria Westbroek, essential to keep the drama at all believable. Their partnership in other operas and evident professional respect for one another helped to bring the whole thing off.
Puccini wrote the opera as a commission for the Met, where it was first performed in 1910 with Caruso in the tenor role. No pressure, then. for the Met to deliver the goods now, and one sensed a certain self-satisfaction in the detailed realism of the setting, complete with characters turning up on horseback whenever possible - some to the Polka Saloon in the first act, and both Minnie and Dick Johnson to Minnie's cabin in the second (sets and costumes by Michael Scott). It all helped to emphasise the Wild West (or Californian gold-rush) setting; though the saloon was doubtless improbably large in order to fill the stage.
The story is melodramatic, from the rather sentimental view of the bar-room crowd of miners passing round the hat to finance the return of a failed miner to his home, to the romance between Minnie and Dick and its transformative effect on Dick's morality, to the final climax when Minnie manages to persuade a lynch mob to change its mind on account of all she has done for them in the past. But all this is more or less beside the point when it underpins such gorgeous lyrical music.
The crowd scenes were very well managed, and the cameo roles of various miners and the barkeeper were well sung and individualistically portrayed. The main burden, of course, lies on the principals, and all three were excellent. Željko Lučić sang the sheriff with the right mix of passion, sense of entitlement and baffled rage at being thwarted; only his final impotence at the collapse of all his hopes looked a bit false, but that is out of any singer's or actor's control. Eva-Maria Westbroek was an impassioned Minnie, both naively idealistic about love and thoroughly down-to-earth when it comes to managing in a masculine world (there is only one other woman, in a tiny role, to be seen in the entire opera). Jonas Kaufmann was a fine cowboy bandit, charismatic in style, and singing beautifully. Most important of all, there was a real chemistry between him and Eva-Maria Westbroek, essential to keep the drama at all believable. Their partnership in other operas and evident professional respect for one another helped to bring the whole thing off.
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