Everyone loves a good Western!
A handsome outlaw in disguise! The sheriff in hot pursuit! And a garter-snapping, pistol-packing, poker-playing heroine who knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em to save the man she loves.
Puccini was fascinated by the American West, and California during the Gold Rush was perfect for the adventures of one of his most memorable leading ladies.
If you love Butterfly and Tosca, then you'll love Minnie, too — especially when she's sung by Deborah Voigt!
Savor blazing orchestral color, passionate arias, and "Lyric's production — which is good as gold." Chicago Sun-Times
Deborah Voigt: "The silvery sounds of her flights into the stratosphere are incomparable. She is a miracle." Berliner Morgenpost
And wow, what a tenor! Marcello Giordani is the Metropolitan Opera's Italian heartthrob of choice: "Ruggedly good-looking...sweeping fervor...and top notes that ring out for miles."
The New York Times
On the Record
Roger Pines, dramaturg at Lyric Opera, recommends these recorded performances.
On CD
Tebaldi, Del Monaco, MacNeil; Accademia di Santa Cecilia, cond. Capuana (Decca)
Nilsson, Gibin, Mongelli; La Scala, cond. Matačič (EMI)
Olivero, Ferraro, Guelfi; Teatro La Fenice, cond. De Fabritiis (Bel Canto Society)
Pre-1960
Steber, Del Monaco, Guelfi; Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, cond. Mitropoulos (Regis)
Frazzoni, Corelli, Gobbi; La Scala, cond. Votto (Opera d’Oro)
Although Covent Garden’s marvelous DG performance under Mehta is no longer available, there are five other viable choices out there at the moment. Which one you pick will depend on two factors: your preference as regards the soprano (no Fanciulla can succeed without a memorable Minnie), and whether you can accept live-performance sound of a certain age.
Decca’s 1958 studio recording wears its age very well. Except for Cornell MacNeil (American, yes, but completely authentic in his style), all the singers are Italian, as are the conductor and orchestra. That fact goes a long way in this opera; it contains so much music written in Puccini’s tricky conversational style, which is best managed by performers boasting the native instinct for it. Renata Tebaldi is ultra-feminine and warm-hearted as Minnie, occasionally hard-toned at the very top but otherwise singing gloriously. She has the charm one would expect of her, as well as much intensity, in a role she didn’t sing onstage until several years after this recording was made. Her clarity of enunciation is a constant joy. Tebaldi’s regular tenor partner at Decca, Mario del Monaco, is on his best musical behavior. He’s also thrilling at the climaxes, as usual, and his brazen, super-confident style actually suits the character. All the supporting singers contribute strongly, and the orchestra under a solid leader, Franco Capuana, plays through this rewarding score with surging excitement.
The other available studio performance, also from 1958, was, in fact, planned for Maria Callas, Franco Corelli, and Tito Gobbi, all of whom pulled out. EMI then turned to Birgit Nilsson, who quickly learned the role for the recording (she never sang it onstage). Vocally it holds no terrors for her at all, and any fans of her celebrated Turandot will want to hear her as a Puccini heroine who could hardly offer a greater contrast in temperament. Her vocal acting is intelligent, often affecting, without going the extra mile that one hears in her rivals’ portrayals. Her tenor, João Gibin, is gentler and more loving than Corelli and del Monaco, but hardly their equal in vocal security. Another little-remembered singer, Andrea Mongelli, is an above-average Rance, effortful at the top, and not leaving his stamp on the part. The forces of La Scala are predictably idiomatic under the direction of one of the most successful foreign conductors to find favor in Italy at the time, Lovro von Matačič.
The three live performances are essential because of their leading ladies. In her middle range Magda Olivero (Venice, 1966) hasn’t the lusciousness of Eleanor Steber (Florence, 1954), but she thrills at the top and in her soft singing, while creating an exquisitely vulnerable characterization. Steber, who would be Lyric’s first Minnie two years after her Florence performance, is astoundingly fearless in this exhausting role. The American diva’s performance must surely have stood her audience on its ear. No one — I repeat, no one — matches her in the exultant cries of “È mio!” that close Act Two. As for the tenors: Now nearly forgotten is Pier Miranda Ferraro, who partners Olivero and is the genuine article — a real Italian spinto tenor. Del Monaco is even finer when heard live in 1954 rather than in the studio. Common to both Florence and Venice is the mighty Giangiacomo Guelfi, whose massive voice and rough-hewn delivery are not unsuited to Jack Rance.
In a famous 1956 revival at La Scala the Italian soprano Gigliola Frazzoni gives the performance of her life. If her vocal technique is the chanciest of all these ladies, she boasts a classic timbre and consuming dramatic involvement. Now we get to hear the two legendary artists lost to EMI’s performance: Tito Gobbi is a snarling Rance, Franco Corelli an unfailingly spectacular Johnson. The conductors of these three performances are all exceptionally distinguished, but the palm goes to the maestro in the Florence performance, the legendary Dimitri Mitropoulos.
On DVD
Daniels, Domingo, Milnes; Metropolitan Opera, cond. Slatkin, dir. G.C. Del Monaco (DG)
Neblett, Domingo, Carroli; Royal Opera House/Covent Garden, cond. Santi, dir. Faggioni (Kultur)
Stella, Limarilli, Colzani; NHK Symphony Orchestra, cond. de Fabritiis (VAI – Black-and-White)
To see an excellently conceived production on DVD of this opera, done with complete conviction by all concerned, I would first suggest the Met’s thrilling production with the trio of Barbara Daniels, Plácido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes. These artists give themselves wholeheartedly to the work; the soprano’s vitality, the tenor’s panache and sex appeal, and baritone’s smoldering passion — these are all quite irresistible. They three are surrounded by a worthy supporting cast, and the work is directed by Mario Del Monaco’s son, Gian Carlo, with quite extraordinary atmosphere and a wealth of detail. It’s also thrilling to hear the Metropolitan Opera players really go to town in Puccini’s incomparable orchestration.
Again in gleaming voice, and at his handsomest and most charismatic, Domingo also performs in the Covent Garden production, where he’s paired with the marvelous Carol Neblett, who was born to play and sing Minnie — as with the Met’s Daniels, this is an immensely endearing portrayal. Silvano Carroli really throws himself into the role of Rance, and if some of his acting seems exaggerated in closeup and some of his vocalism rather inelegant, he’s still a major asset. The opera is performed in totally realistic, wonderfully lived-in sets by Ken Adam, and the careful stage direction by Piero Faggioni is a complete success. The male ensemble includes some of the most impressive regulars on the Covent Garden roster of a quarter-century ago, all are under the leadership of an expert Puccinian, Nello Santi.
During the early 1960s many operas were mounted in Tokyo with distinguished Italian singers, who performed with a Japanese chorus and orchestra. The production values in the Fanciulla (shot in black-and-white) are very old-fashioned indeed and the cast is sub-par, with one major exception, the soprano Antonietta Stella. She is reason enough to acquire the performance — a Minnie who acts with total sincerity and believability. A genuine Italian spinto soprano, Stella soars on top, sings with considerable substance and color in the rest of her range, and presents her characterization in a memorablywarm, direct, totally unaffected style.