From Seen and Heard International
By: Harvey Steiman

Soloists, chorus and orchestra of San Francisco Opera, Nicola Luisotti, conductor. War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, 9.6.2010 (HS)

Deborah Voigt has proven herself formidable in Wagner roles such as Sieglinde in Die Walküre or Senta in Die Fliegende Hollander, and Strauss heroines such as the Prima Donna in Ariadne auf Naxos or the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau Ohne Schatten. In her role debut as Minnie in Puccini’s Fanciulla del West at San Francisco Opera last week, not so much, at least not vocally.

The company has been billing this as “The Girl of the Golden West” and cleverly promoting it as “the original spaghetti western.” Puccini set the scene in California’s Gold Rush, a time and place that must have been as exotic to him as the Japan of Madama Butterfly or the China of Turandot. Voigt, familiar to San Francisco audiences since her days here as an Adler Fellow, brings a straightforward American openness to the character, along with warmth and real charm. You can understand why the miners in the story would love her good-hearted saloonkeeper.

Unfortunately, the vocal demands do not suit her strengths. Heard on the production’s opening night June 9, her singing was blunt, lacking in Italianate legato and in the ebb and flow that makes Puccini’s music so immediate and enthralling. Dramatically, the big crowd scenes never jelled musically because she could hold the center vocally. The more intimate scenes, such as the love duets with tenor Salvatore Licitra and the confrontation with baritone Roberto Frontali, revved up to a higher intensity, but the difference between her choppy melodic lines and the plangent phrases of the two Italians created a wide gulf.

As the bandit and love interest Dick Johnson/Ramerrez, Licitra wielded a robust tenor that may have pulled back a tad on the top notes but played out the shapely lines with clarity and refinement. His Act 3 arietta, “Ch’ella mi creda,” was a moment of sweetness and glory. Frontali played and sang Rance, the sheriff with an unrequited yen for Minnie, with an emphasis on power over refinement. He made a frightening nemesis for Voigt’s Minnie.

The rest of the male cast hit their marks and sang well enough. As Wowkle, Minnie’s Indian housekeeper, rich-voiced mezzo soprano Maya Lahyani made a strong impression. What made this a successful, ultimately satisfying performance, however, was conductor Nicola Luisotti. The company’s music director has a passion for this score, and it showed in the loving details he brought out on every page. There was no lack of ebb and flow in his approach. The music pulsed and surged, sometime a bit too strongly for some of the singers, but no matter. The effect was exciting.

The production fell well short, however. Director Lorenzo Mariani brought no clarity to the opening bar room scene, creating a muddle. Other scenes that involved the large cast, with 17 credited singing roles, ran aground lifelessly. The Act II confrontation between Minnie and Rance had some snap, though, even if the shooting of Johnson/Ramerrez offstage was awkwardly handled.

The sets, designed by Maurizio Balò in a co-production with Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Opera Royal de Wallonie, did not help much. The opening tableau of miners wielding pick axes as they were suspended in front of a steep rocky wall, and the attempt at theatricality as the cast then unpacked black boxes with lamps and other props, distracted from rather than explicating the mis-en-scène. In the final scene, two men leading a docile horse delivered Minnie to save the day, drawing laughs instead of admiration. The horse-driven cart carrying the hero and heroine into the sunset started too soon and had to stop again before the curtain fell.

OK, there are more than a few risible moments in this opera, anyway, especially to a California audience familiar with the real history of the Gold Rush. Chuckles rippled through the house as Italian singers conclude that a character who wanted water in his whiskey must be from San Francisco, and nervous laughter greeted the portrayal of an American Indian muttering, “ugh.” The object should be to slip past those moments and get to the heart, and that only happened in fits and starts. When it did happen, the old Girl came to life.