摘要

La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1910, with Caruso as Johnson and Emmy Destinn as Minnie. An immediate success with the public, this Puccini opera has been a favorite with audiences ever since. Set in California in the days of the Gold Rush, the work is filled with dramatic touches, much lyric beauty, and brilliant orchestration.
The opera represents a distinct departure from Puccini's earlier works. Determined to turn away from the sentimental tragedies he had written in the past, the composer sought to write a work of "harder, more masculine fibre." The result was an opera distinctly different from such Puccini standards as Madame Butterfly and La Boh#65533;me .
With a harmonic language reflecting Debussy's innovations, and an orchestral palette along the lines modelled by Richard Strauss, La Fanciulla 's dramatic scale foreshadowed the remarkable originality and audacity of his last great opera, Turandot .
Now music students, performers, and the legions of ardent Puccini lovers can study and enjoy this unique part of the composer's canon, reproduced from an authoritative edition.