La Fanciulla del West

Other programs: Aida

10 December 1910 was the date of the initial presentation of Puccini's La  Fanciulla del West at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, but actually there were two debuts that night. It was also New York's debut on the world stage.  By presenting the first-ever American premiere of an opera by a major European composer, the Met hoped to win legitimacy for New York as one of the world's great opera cities.  Without question it accomplished that.  There were no fewer then fifty-five curtain calls throughout the performance and at the end the house applauded for more than fifteen minutes.

Puccini, in Fanciulla,was determined to break free from what he called the "musica zuccherata" (sugary music) of his earlier operas and to position himself as a composer of "serious"  music.  After the opening, he said "...the Girl has come out, in my opinion, the best opera I have written."

La Boheme, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly may be more accessible and more popular but Fanciulla succeeds on a higher level of sophistication and accomplishment.  It is his capolavoro, his chef d'oeuvre, his Meisterwerk.  Anton Webern, whose spare music is as far removed from Puccini's heart-on-sleeve approach as conceivable, wrote to his teacher Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna in 1919 about Fanciulla as "a score with an original sound throughout, splendid - every bar a surprise - I must say I enjoyed it.  Am I wrong?"  No, Anton, you are not wrong.  Puccini's opera convinces us of that.
- Angelo Mammano

Speaker Angelo Mammano is a long-time Board Member of the NEOC.  He is an opera lecturer and writer.  In his former life as a ballet pianist he worked with Boston Ballet and other companies here and in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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