La fanciulla del West
also The Girl of the Golden West
opera · opera in tre atti
Composer Giacomo Puccini
Librettist Guelfo Civinini, Carlo Zangarini
Synopsis
Minnie keeps the saloon where the miners drink, and guards the keg of gold they have trusted her with. The sheriff wants to marry her and she puts him off. A stranger rides in, gives his name as Dick Johnson of Sacramento, and turns out to be a man she met once before.
Key facts
- Premiere
- 10 December 1910, Metropolitan Opera House (39th Street), New York
- Acts
- 3
- Language
- Italian (it)
- Setting
- A miners' camp at the foot of the Cloudy Mountains in California, in the gold rush years of 1849 and 1850.
Notes
The only version, and the first opera to have its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. Puccini went on retouching the score for the Italian performances that followed, and Ricordi issued a new edition in 1911. In October 1922 he wrote a fresh ending for the love duet in the second act, sixteen bars of it, first heard at the Teatro Politeama in Viareggio on 9 September 1923. Neither of those makes a second text. The retouching reworks what was already there, and the Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini records the sixteen bars in the same breath as the orchestration, as further work on one score rather than a version of it.
Dramatis personae
| Role | Voice | Created by |
|---|---|---|
| Minnie The woman who owns the Polka saloon. | soprano | Emmy Destinn |
| Jack Rance The sheriff. | baritone | Pasquale Amato |
| Dick Johnson A bandit, riding under an assumed name. | tenor | Enrico Caruso |
| Nick The barman at the Polka. | tenor | Albert Reiss |
| Ashby An agent of the Wells Fargo transport company. | bass | Adam Didur |
| Sonora A miner. | baritone | Dinh Gilly |
| Trin A miner. | tenor | Angelo Badà |
| Sid A miner. | baritone | Giulio Rossi |
| Bello A miner. | baritone | Vincenzo Reschiglian |
| Harry A miner. | tenor | Pietro Audisio |
| Joe A miner. | tenor | Glenn Hall |
| Happy A miner. | baritone | Antonio Pini-Corsi |
| Larkens A miner. | bass | Bernard Bégué |
| Billy Jackrabbit A Native American of the camp. | bass | Georges Bourgeois |
| Wowkle Billy Jackrabbit's partner. | mezzo-soprano | Marie Mattfeld |
| Jake Wallace A travelling camp balladeer. | baritone | Andrés de Segurola |
| José Castro A member of Ramerrez's band. | bass | Edoardo Missiano |
| Un postiglione A post-rider. | tenor | Lamberto Belleri |
Source
- The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco (1905)
Written from
- Osborne, C. (1981) The complete operas of Puccini: a critical guide. London: Gollancz, pp. 173-196.
- Schickling, D. (2003) 'La fanciulla del West', in Giacomo Puccini: catalogue of the works, no. 78. Kassel: Bärenreiter. Online edition, Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini. (Accessed: 5 September 2026).
- Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini (n.d.) La fanciulla del West. (Accessed: 5 September 2026).
- Wikipedia (2026) La fanciulla del West. (Accessed: 5 September 2026).
- Puccini, G. (1910) The girl of the golden West (La fanciulla del West): vocal score, arranged by C. Carignani, English version by R. H. Elkin. London: G. Ricordi & Co. (Accessed: 5 September 2026).