The Girl from the Golden West

We saw Puccini's La Fanciulla del West at the ALO. It is strage seeing an opera taking place in the American West sung in Italian. Still, it was a nice enough show. As usual, the stage was impressive. We loved the snow drifting off and on, it really made you feel like it was winter. The voices were strong and the acting was well done as well. The artists actually fit their roles, something that doesn't always happen in opera which sometimes makes the tragedic love plots less believable. And for once, the story did have a happy ending.

This was not my favorite opera of the season (so far I liked A Streetcar Named Desire best, but we still have Rigoletto) but it was interesting hearing a work by Puccini that obviously influenced many modern musicals a movie scores (I swear I heard part of the Star Wars theme in there).

Next season will bring La Boheme and La Traviata which are both lovely and tragic. They'll also show Dead Man Walking, a recent American piece, as part of the season and then ALO will co-sponsor a show at the Ervin Center in conjunction with the Chinese Opera.