On 10 December 1910, the Metropolitan Opera in New York presented its first-ever world premiere. The composer, Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924), was the reigning King of Italian Opera. The story was by David Belasco (1853–1931), the most successful playwright on Broadway at the time, one of whose many dozen plays had already been adapted by the composer as the wildly successful Madama Butterfly. And this one, The Girl of the Golden West in Belasco’s title or La fanciulla del West in Puccini’s, even had an American setting: a mining-camp saloon in the California Gold Rush of 1849.

Puccini was the last great exponent of the verismo movement (realist detail edited for emotional effect). Were American audiences then as prepared to see verismo techniques applied to their own country as to, say, Sicily or Japan? And what problems might this approach pose for audiences today?

The class handout (links above) includes an outline of the story insofar as the major characters are concerned; the synopsis link above gives more detail, but if you are unfamiliar with the opera, it may be better to keep the ending a surprise. If you want a musical sample that shows the musical strengths of this rather uneven opera, try the climax of the love duet here. rb.