Premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1910, it is Puccini's most radical and modern opera, written without arias in the traditional style. But it is one of the most influential of all Puccini's operas. Without this opera the film scores of countless Westerns would not exist. This opera created the sound of the western film genre.
Minnie is a saloon girl in a gold rush town, who falls in love with the bandit, Dick Johnson, in disguise. There is a dramatic tense poker game as blood drips from the ceiling and a final happy ending. But the opera is also imbued with a feeling of isolation, loneliness and melancholy. Much of the music is evocative and glorious.
The opera was the subject of a famous court case when Puccini's estate sued Andrew Lloyd Webber for plagiarism. The case was settled for an undisclosed sum, but anyone who knows Phantom will recognise several of Puccini's tunes. Puccini's score provided much inspiration for how the American landscape became represented in music throughout the 20th Century.
While still the poor cousin of the popular Puccini works, it is a fabulous piece with much to love. Performances while infrequent aren't rare and the piece provides some marvellous roles.
Here is the entire opera from 2013 from the Wiener Staatsoper starring the stunning Jonas Kaufmann as Dick Johnson and the fabulous Nina Stemme as Minnie.
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