On August 20th, the NCPA opera La Fanciulla del West premiered in China. It was this opera’s first time to appear on the Chinese stage after it came out more than 100 years ago.
The Chinese and Italian opera artists’ wonderful performance in the beautiful but dramatic music by Puccini poetically reproduced the love and sadness peculiar to the “Gold Rush era” for the audience.
The plot is also thought-provoking because of the heroine Minnie’s romantic entanglement with the peace officer Rance, bandit leader Johnson and miners, as well as the miners’ forgiveness for Johnson, who “steals” Minnie.
The singer Marco Berti, honoured as the world’s fourth tenor, sang out the notorious bandit leader’s sturdiness and affections in his voice full of metallic lustre and strength.
In the director and set designer Thaddeus Strassberger’s view, the music in La Fanciulla del West is more like film scores, so in terms of stage vision, he skillfully combines the stage with multimedia vision.
The stage is blended ingeniously with the image, producing a strong visual impact on scenes including the Western-style bar, the wild Western mountainous area, the magnified cliff-hanging gambling game between Minnie and Rance, the mountain cabin covered in snow and the mysterious, gloomy Western jungle.
In addition to these scenes, Thaddeus Strassberger also expresses his deep thoughts about the Gold Rush and plot of the opera using a sharp light and shade contrast, an absolutely empty iron box mountain and a cottage where Minnie’s secret is hidden.
The ending of this opera is also processed distinctively. Different from the traditional ending where Minnie and Johnson say goodbye to California, Thaddeus Strassberger lets California veer away from Minnie and Johnson, giving the ending greater implications.
On August 20th, the NCPA opera La Fanciulla del West premiered in China. It was this opera’s first time to appear on the Chinese stage after it came out more than 100 years ago.
The Chinese and Italian opera artists’ wonderful performance in the beautiful but dramatic music by Puccini poetically reproduced the love and sadness peculiar to the “Gold Rush era” for the audience.
The plot is also thought-provoking because of the heroine Minnie’s romantic entanglement with the peace officer Rance, bandit leader Johnson and miners, as well as the miners’ forgiveness for Johnson, who “steals” Minnie.
The singer Marco Berti, honoured as the world’s fourth tenor, sang out the notorious bandit leader’s sturdiness and affections in his voice full of metallic lustre and strength.
In the director and set designer Thaddeus Strassberger’s view, the music in La Fanciulla del West is more like film scores, so in terms of stage vision, he skillfully combines the stage with multimedia vision.
The stage is blended ingeniously with the image, producing a strong visual impact on scenes including the Western-style bar, the wild Western mountainous area, the magnified cliff-hanging gambling game between Minnie and Rance, the mountain cabin covered in snow and the mysterious, gloomy Western jungle.
In addition to these scenes, Thaddeus Strassberger also expresses his deep thoughts about the Gold Rush and plot of the opera using a sharp light and shade contrast, an absolutely empty iron box mountain and a cottage where Minnie’s secret is hidden.
The ending of this opera is also processed distinctively. Different from the traditional ending where Minnie and Johnson say goodbye to California, Thaddeus Strassberger lets California veer away from Minnie and Johnson, giving the ending greater implications.
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