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Opera Tampa: Puccini, pardner

La Fanciulla del West requires a certain sense of humor from the singers and the audience.

By JOHN FLEMING
Published March 26, 2006

Even at Opera Tampa, which stages the work next weekend, it has been something of a neglected child, tentatively planned for several seasons in the past but postponed in favor of others until now.

Conductor Anton Coppola, who considers La Fanciulla one of Puccini's best scores, thinks the opera's lack of famous arias is the reason for its less than glittering reputation. "There is one big tenor aria at the end, an aria of redemption, but otherwise the emphasis is as much orchestral as vocal,'' Coppola said. "It really is a musicalized play.''

Then there's the issue of the story and its setting, a love triangle involving saloonkeeper Minnie, bandit Dick Johnson and sheriff Jack Rance during the California gold rush. The Italian singing in the American West can be unintentionally hilarious.

"That's been the one serious prejudice against the opera,'' said Coppola, who has taken steps to improve an aspect of the libretto that he finds especially egregious. He arranged for a new translation of dialogue by an American Indian couple. In the original, adapted from the David Belasco play that was the opera's source, the couple speak-sings in "a sort of pig Italian,'' Coppola said.

Now the scene, at the beginning of the second act, is done in the virtually extinct language of the Maidu tribe, which lived in the Sacramento Valley at the time of the opera. "It sounds kind of Polynesian or Hawaiian,'' said the veteran conductor, who first used the new translation in a Utah Opera production last year.

Springer points out that Johnson's Act 1 aria "Quello che tacete'' is The Music of the Night virtually note for note except for a big B-flat that Lloyd Webber doesn't give the Phantom. There is another Johnson scene with music similar to Lloyd Webber's for Raoul and Christine's duet on the opera house roof.

Springer, who was Pinkerton in last season's Madama Butterfly, is making his debut as Johnson. "You never forget the first time you do a role,'' he said. "That becomes the base line; like in computer talk, it's the default. And it's wonderful to get to do this with Anton Coppola. He knows all the traditions. He knows every note and every word in the entire score without looking at the score.''

"I love that!'' said soprano Holly Hall, who is playing the spunky saloonkeeper. She doesn't think the opera's unlikely marriage of language and setting is any more off-putting than that of Puccini's Turandot.

"There you're singing Italian in China,'' she said. "But I don't think that matters. I think what matters is the way Puccini is capturing the characters in his musical portrayal. He just had an innate understanding of how to portray people, how to portray emotions. He got America, he got these types of people.''

Hall is also making her La Fanciulla debut. "I sing Tosca, and Minnie is a more dramatic role than Tosca,'' she said. "Minnie does have two arias, but they're not the things you would leave the theater humming. It takes very steady, consistent preparation. There's so much talking on pitch, so much singing of phrases that require understanding of the words.''

In rehearsal, Coppola guides the soprano to understand "the intentions and emotions behind Minnie's lines,'' Hall said. "You always have to be thinking about what you're saying. You can't ever just start singing. If you think the right things, the voice changes color to match your intent.''

Minnie has been sung by many great divas. "I listened to (Renata) Tebaldi. I listened to (Birgit) Nilsson. (Dorothy) Kirsten did it,'' Hall said. "Minnie is this strong, loving character who is pure. I love her so much because she's so real.''

John Fleming can be reached at fleming@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8716.

[Last modified March 24, 2006, 12:12:19]