Reporté à une date inconnue: The Girl of the Golden West

California Gold Rush, was a great success at its premiere at the New York Met in December 1910. Puccini’s peerless melodic gift and capacity for creating local colour is a perfect match for this tale of a love triangle involving Dick Johnson, aka the bandit Ramerrez, Sheriff Jack Rance and Minnie, the Girl of the Golden West who runs the Polka saloon. 

The Girl of the Golden West is a story of true love and second chances, set against the backdrop of the tough life of a gold-mining community on the American frontier. The opera has been called the original Spaghetti Western, and boasts what is perhaps Puccini’s most innovative score, and surely his richest orchestrally. Antony Hermus, who conducted electrifying performances of Tosca in 2018, conducts Aletta Collins’ widely admired production. 

‘Puccini’s evocation of the Wild West comes across with unexpected authenticity in Opera North’s high-fidelity new staging’ 

Andrew Clark, Financial Times 

‘Opera North’s reading … grabs you by the throat and refuses to release its grip until the curtain falls.’ 

Fiona Maddocks, The Observer