Giocomo Puccini (1858-1924) - La fanciulla del West (1988) Cover Front Album Composer Giocomo Puccini (1858-1924) Conductor Zubin Mehta Orchestra / Ensemble I Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Length 129:21 Format CD Genre Vocal; Opera Chorus I Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Chorus Master Robin Stapleton Index 400 Out of Print Yes Musicians Soloist Neblett; Domingo; Milnes; Egerton; Lloyd; Summers; Dobson; Rivers; McDonnell; Crook; Leggate; Elvin; King Credits Producer Gunter Breest Label Deutsche Grammophon Track List La Fanciulla del West 59:03 01 Act I: [Introduzione] s. Track 2 02:58 02 Act I: "Hello, Nick!" s. Track 2 03:46 03 Act I: "Che faranno i vecchi miei" s. Track 2 03:46 04 Act I: "Jim, perché piangi?" D. 706 02:42 05 Act I: "Andiamo, ragazzi! Un po' di calma" D. 739 01:01 06 Act I: "Un poker! Nick, gettoni!" D. 750 01:46 07 Act I: "Mistress Rance, fra poco" D. 811 01:02 08 Act I: "Hello, Minnie!" Deutsche Messe mit Anhang "Das Gebet des Herrn" D. 872 03:46 09 Act I: "Dove eravamo?" s. Track 12 04:11 10 Act I: "La posta!" s. Track 12 02:47 11 Act I: "Ti voglio bene, Minnie" s. Track 12 01:59 12 Act I: "Minnie, dalla mia casa son partito" s. Track 12 02:22 13 Act I: "Laggiù nel Soledad" s. Track 12 02:42 14 Act I: "Chi c'è per farmi i ricci?" s. Track 12 01:45 15 Act I: "Vi ricordate di me?" s. Track 12 01:42 16 Act I: "Mister Johnson, voi m'avete seccato!" s. Track 12 01:13 17 Act I: "Mister Johnson, un valzer?" D. 953 04:40 18 Act I: "Mister Johnson, siete rimasto indietro" D. 964 04:10 19 Act I: "Io non son che una povera fanciulla" D. 31 01:32 20 Act I: "Quello che tacete" D. 66 01:04 21 Act I: "Come voi, leggermi in cor non so" D. 106 02:29 22 Act I: "Oh, non temete, nessuno ardirà!" Offertorium C-dur D. 136 05:40 La fanciulla del West 70:18 01 Act II: "Il mio bimbo è grande e piccino" D. 175 01:53 02 Act II: "Billy, è fissato?... Domani" Offertorium a-moll D. 181 01:40 03 Act II: "Voglio vestirmi tutta" D. 184 03:57 04 Act II: "Oh, se sapeste" Offertorium F-dur D. 223 05:04 05 Act II: "Ugh... Neve!... Va! Riposati sul fieno" D. 461 07:21 06 Act II: "Hello!... Chiamano" D. 460 04:32 07 Act II: "Vieni fuori!" D. 486 01:12 08 Act II: "...lo so, lo so! Ma nonvi avrei rubato!" D. 488 03:29 09 Act II: "L'han ferito... Che importa?" s. Track 4 02:14 10 Act II: "Che c'è di nuova, Jack?" Konzert c-moll für Violine und Oboe nach BWV 1060 03:42 11 Act II: "È là! è là!... Ah, no... non voglia!" s. Track 7 02:10 12 Act II: "Una partita a poker!" s. Track 7 06:41 13 Act III: "Ve lo giuro, sceriffo" Konzert D-dur für 3 Violinen nach BWV 1064 02:01 14 Act III: "Maledetto cane!" s. Track 10 01:57 15 Act III: "Ah!... Ah!... Urrah! ragazzi" s. Track 10 04:16 16 Act III: "Sceriffo Rance! Consegno a voi quest'uomo" Konzert C-dur nach BWV 1055 00:29 17 Act III: "E così, Mister Johnson, come va?" s. Track 1 02:04 18 Act III: "Risparmiate lo scherno" s. Track 1 02:18 19 Act III: "Ch'ella mi creda libero e lontano" Symphony No.2, Opus 73, D Major 02:49 20 Act III: "Ah!... Ah!... È Minnie!" s. Track 4 01:55 21 Act III: "Basta! quando per voi" s. Track 4 02:39 22 Act III: "E anche tu lo vorrai, Joe" Konzert e-moll nach Kantate BWV 35 03:32 23 Act III: "Le tue parole sono di Dio" Symphony No.4, Opus 98, E minor 02:23 Personal Purchase Date 8/2/1999 Value $36.98 Store Barnes & Noble, Clearwater Condition 95% Librettist Guelfo Civinini; Carlo Zangarini Nationality Italian Premiere Metropolitan Opera, New York, December, 1910 "Form" Opera in tre atti Language Italian Period Romantic Details Studio Watford Town Hall, London Catalog Number 419 640-2 Live No Recording Date 6/1/1977 Spars ADD Reissue No Sound Stereo Notes Minnie: Carol Neblett Dick Johnson: Placido Domingo Jack Rance: Sherrill Milnes Nick: Francis Egerton Ashby: Robert Lloyd Sonora: Jonathan Summers Trin: John Dobson Sid: Malcolm Rivers Bello: Tom McDonnell Harry: Paul Crook Joe: Robin Leggate Happy: William Elvin Larkens: Malcolm King Billy Jackrabbit: Paul Hudson Wowkle: Anne Wilkens Jake Wallace: Gwynne Howell José Castro: Eric Garrett Un postinlione: Handel Owen Notes, illustrations, text and translations Essay: Mosco Corner Gramophone review: "Based on the Covent Garden production of ten years ago with Sherrill Milnes brought in as an extra star to make Jack Rance a noble villain, this DG set of La fanciulla del West remains among the most successful of Zubin Mehta's opera recordings, taking the Gramophone Record of the Year award in 1978. His often brisk manner gives the performance extra tautness and cohesion, never detracting from expressive warmth. In practical terms it means that the whole opera can be conveniently squeezed on to two CDs instead of three LPs, with the extra convenience that Act 1 is complete on the first disc, Acts 2 and 3 on the second with no mid-act breaks involved. "The transfer captures the fullness and boldness of the original recording, but the slight drying-out process of the digital sound makes tuttis rather more strident than I had remembered with some hardness in the treble. That sometimes affects the recording of Domingo's tenor too. It remains a fine heroic performance, but his singing is more strenuous than we are used to now, when increasingly since the Otello seems to have been such a liberating factor for him. I wish that Ch'ella mi creda was more varied in dynamic, for example. Carol Neblett makes a touching Minnie, not so characterful as some but rich and true in the formidably exposed top notes. Milnes, as I say, brings out the nobility of Rance without diminishing his menace, and the rest of the cast, with Covent Garden stage experience behind them, provide a formidable team, with Gwynne Howell outstanding in the haunting minstrel ballad in the opening scene. "Compact Disc enhances the precision of the voice as it is first heard off-stage, highly evocative. I am now curious to hear a digital transfer of the Decca set with Tebaldi and del Monaco, which was one of the earliest operatic spectaculars in the stereo era. I have a feeling the placing of voices and instruments in the stereo spectrum might be even more precise, but that is an academin pint, when this DG set provides so outstanding an answer for anyone wanting this colourful, fascinating opera on CD, a piece even more moving on disc, I have often found, that on stage."