Newsday, April 2005

California miners and barflies singing their hearts out in Italian, hollering "Hallo!"—the picture inevitably provokes titters, even in New York City Opera's excellent production of Puccini's 1910 music-drama La fanciulla del West.

Still, pity the operagoer tripped up by these wrinkles, who fails to engage with the substance of The Girl of the Golden West. Lillian Groag's staging and John Conklin's sets offer important clues: a backdrop of a vast, awesome landscape that emphasizes the smallness and rot of human society.

Before this pristine setting, a mine violates the land: a reminder of humans' exile from paradise, and of the Biblical injunction that they eat their bread "in the sweat of [their] face." "They come here to die like dogs for a handful of gold," the barkeep, Minnie, sings of her beloved miners, after reading them a psalm of atonement and assuring them that "no sinner is beyond redemption."

Songs of nostalgia (literally, "pain for home") permeate the opera—another sign that these Far West denizens find themselves east of Eden.

For all of its hokey trappings, Fanciulla addresses the Western world's weightiest mythic and musical archetypes. (There are references to Christ's resurrection, Wagner's Tristan, and Verdi's Otello, among others.) Fanciulla is also a ripping good show, enfolded in some of Puccini's most rapturous, expansive melodies, in a score of which Anton Webern remarked, "Every measure [is] astonishing."

City Opera's production boasts superb singing and acting from its chorus and ensemble. A lovably ill-scrubbed crew, they offer an enchanting, wordless accompaniment to Minnie's first dance and bloodthirsty roars when preparing to lynch her lover Ramerrez (alias Dick Johnson).

The City Opera Orchestra, under George Manahan, serves up some of its finest playing of the season, luxuriating in Puccini's kaleidoscopic colors in the Act II blizzard and love duet—and occasionally covering the soloists.

Stephanie Friede is an endearing Minnie, from her seen-it-all entrance to her impassioned rescue of Ramerrez. She has a fine feeling for Puccini's sensuous lines, though her voice lacks the plushness to scale the role's soaring heights. An improbably tidy bandit, Renzo Zulian has the stature and dark, handsome tone for Ramerrez but tends to shout; his yelping, painfully open top notes are poorly integrated with the rest of his voice.

Stephen Kechulius is a menacing, rich-toned Sheriff Rance, and Brian Mulligan offers a soulful, languorously beautiful account of the minstrel Jake's lament. The opera's many smaller roles are superbly sung by Gregory Mercer, Todd Thomas, Eric Jordan, Jennifer Tiller, and others.

Even with imperfect singing from its leads, this Fanciulla represents a rare chance to experience Puccini's richest and most rewarding opera, and merits special interest for that.

LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST. Music by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini. New York City Opera, George Manahan conducting. Attended Sunday at Lincoln Center. For tickets, visit www.nycopera.com or call 212-307-4100.