Maybe an opera about the California Gold Rush by a romantic Italian composer was never going to avoid all the clichés. An audience coming to Puccini’s La fanciulla del West for the first time will soon chuckle at its stereotypes. Did Wild West miners always enter a bar with the greeting “Hello, hello! . . . Whiskey per tutti!”?
But do not believe the doubters. This is a wonderful opera, which sees Puccini employing new subtleties of harmony and scene-building. The Act One meeting between Minnie, lone woman in a transient mining community, and her old acquaintance Dick Johnson is no stock Italian love duet. Puccini captures perfectly the wariness as these two potential lovers sound each other out — a mature counterpart to the young Mimì and Rodolfo in La bohème, just as Shakespeare’s ageing Antony and Cleopatra are to his Romeo and Juliet.
The opera does not come round often enough, but remarkably this is Opera Holland Park’s third production in just over 20 years. It makes a good opening to this year’s season, looking a picture of Wild West realism, whatever shortcomings occur along the way.
The character of Minnie is unlike any of Puccini’s other women. Usually portrayed as tough and resilient, a woman surviving in a hard man’s world, she is much more besides. Director Martin Lloyd-Evans has worked with soprano Amanda Echalaz to show us the inner Minnie, a woman who has never danced with a man and probably assumed that love had passed her by long ago. It is a tellingly insightful portrayal, though the vocal part tests Echalaz to her limits and beyond. There is a lot of strain when the voice goes high.
