Unlikely as it may seem, La Fanciulla del West, Puccini’s rootin’-tootin’ 1910 opera set in the Californian Gold Rush, is solidly based in reality. This applies even to its pistol-toting heroine Minnie — part Snow White, part Calamity Jane.
This feisty gal (Susannah Glanville) is a source of inspiration to the miners who surround her in her Polka Bar and temptation, too, being still unkissed.
Local lawman Jack Rance (Simon Thorpe) is one of many with ambition to change all that. To his fury, she opts instead for the more dangerous appeal of the criminal Dick Johnson (tenor Jeff Gwaltney, in fine voice).
Their romance develops to some of the loveliest music in all Puccini, delivered to glorious effect under conductor Stuart Stratford in OHP’s 2014 opener.
Director Stephen Barlow updates the action to the 1950s, with blonde-maned Minnie garbed in shocking pink like a circus bare-back rider, and the ‘miners’ transformed, confusingly, into soldiers conducting nuclear tests. But musically all is gold.
La Fanciulla del West
Opera Holland Park
June 6, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21
Tickets: Call 0300 999 100 or visit rbkc.gov.uk/operahollandpark
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