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Puccini’s La fanciulla del West is set in Gold Rush California in the 1840s. When it premiered in 1910, the setting presumably had novelty value, but audiences today might all too easily see the opera through a haze of cowboy stereotypes. Opera Holland Park is prepared to take that risk, last night opening its 2026 season (the company’s 30th) with Martin Lloyd-Evans’ new production.
Puccini himself couldn’t solve the problem that there are too many roles, too many incidental details, but at its centre, there’s a basic threesome: la fanciulla (“girl”) is Minnie, who’s never danced, never been kissed, despite owning the bar where local miners drink. The town sheriff, Jack Rance, fancies her but she’s not interested. Enter Dick Johnson, a figure from Minnie’s past and also a bandit in disguise. She takes a shine to him and invites him to her cabin; cue her first kiss. Rance storms in, searching for the bandit; he shoots him, but Dick survives; after much ado, he and Minnie leave together in search of a new life: an unusually happy (if not entirely convincing) ending for a Puccini opera.
