The girl of the Golden West at Nationaltheater Mannheim

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2. The girl of the Golden West

California 1849/1850: Red Indians, gold diggers and the sheriff and his men live here in bitter poverty; the only distraction in this hopelessness is from gambling, alcohol and violence. Minnie, who runs a gold diggers’ bar, is the only hope of happiness in this world defined by men. She is being fought over by sheriff Jack Rance and a man who introduces himself as Johnson, with whom Minnie falls in love. When it turns out that Johnson is actually a wanted bandit, Rance thinks that he has triumphed. He tracks the man down one night to Minnie’s place and is about to kill him. But Minnie proposes that they play poker for the life of her lover: if Rance wins, she will hand over him and herself, but otherwise she demands freedom for herself and her hero.

Puccini’s opera is based on David Belasco’s stage play, The Girl of the Golden West, and is frequently referred to as the Western opera, because of its Californian location and its setting among gold diggers. But in the struggle for Minnie, more important things are at stake than revolver bullets: the search for a home. The world première took place on 10 December 1910 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and was a big society event. La fanciulla del West is distinguished by a flamboyant, dramatically incredibly differentiated score, and – although it is rarely performed – is one of the absolute masterpieces of the composer.

Authors

• David Belasco