La fanciulla del West
[Das Mädchen aus dem Goldenen Westen]
Oper in 3 Akten von Giacomo Puccini
Libretto von Guelfo Civinini und Carlo Zangarini nach dem Drama The Girl of the Golden West von David Belasco
Uraufführung: 10. Dezember 1910 in New York
Premiere an der Deutschen Oper Berlin: 27. März 2004
In italienischer Sprache mit deutschen Übertiteln
24. | 27. September 2006
02. Oktober 2006
Musikalische Leitung Vjekoslav Sutej Inszenierung Vera Nemirova Bühne, Kostüme Klaus Werner Noack Chöre Ulrich Paetzholdt Minnie Sylvie Valayre Jack Rance Marco Chingari Dauer 3 Stunden 15 Minuten
Zwei Pausen
It was the worst production with the best singing that I have seen and
heard. The photos in the www.deustcheoperberlin.de does not show how
bad the production was. Reading the subtitles at the same time as
seeing what's going on onstage would only serve to confusion.
This is a Spaghetti Western in Opera. But here it is modernized to an
extent where only the sheriff is still sheriff. The Saloon of the
opera is here something else, a fast food bar with some weird security
line, is this the border to Mexico or is it a part of an airport or is
it a German train station. What are the Santa's there for. It is near
Christmas perhaps. Why is there a movie board showing the men getting
dressed or something. This security thing can't be serious 'cause when
Dick Johnson (Jose Cura) aka Ramirez, there are no-one making a copy
of his hand.
Luckily when Jose Cura is there the opera becomes more real and
interesting. Not that Sylvie Valayre is a bad Minnie, she is singing
and acting wonderfully but this production does nothing to help this
character to be a real and truly interesting person to the spectator.
Minnie belongs to the West and in another century. Women today have
much more and other choices to make. Truly when Sylvie Valayre and
Jose Cura sings together there is deep connection between those two,
Dick Johnson and Minnie, and therefor the audience connects too. Jack
Rance is also more real when with Sylvie or Jose. Marco Chingari is an
admirable singer doing his best. But the scenography and costumes does
put me off.
The 2nd act is better. But still not good. The material Minnie's cabin
is made of is so poor than one single man can easily destroy part of
the wall. It is just carbon paper. And this is supposed to be the
winter and in the mountains, and a single woman lives there alone. That
is simply not realistic... It did not like how the cabin looked and I
really did not like the idea that the men looking for Ramirez would
destroy the cabin if they really wanted to protect " la ragazza del
campo". They would have just knocked on the door and Minnie would have
opened. So that was stupid. The good thing about the second act was
that this time I found the opening with the two Native Americans,
Wockle and Jackrabbit, soon to be parents and soon to marry, a truly
nice and realistic moment. Of course the duets between Sylvie Valayre
and Jose Cura and their acting was wonderful and showed the naivety of
the two of them in a heartening way.
Jose Cura had told us that the 3rd act was worst, and in a way it was.
It was situated in heaven, he said. Well, yes, there were clouds
instead of mountains. But you could easily ignore that and make the
"Heavenly" clouds into mountain sloops in your mind. I was more
troubled with the concept of a TV team being there to tape the
execution. It was so not necessary. And in the end it was revealed as
a movie in making. Well yes, right, that would have been nice, not
since this was a modern Fanciulla del West.
The important thing is that the singing was outstanding, still I was
glad I did not have to see this production again.
