Hello everyone!  I'm a new poster - referred from another "classical"
mailing list to this one, after having found the first list through a
mention on Opera-L - so it's ironic that I'm posting about opera in my
first post to Classical.net.

On Puccini's "perfect act," I love too much of his music to choose one,
but I do want to comment on the proposition of the critic that started
this topic - that act one of "Fanciulla" is a worthy candidate.

I love "Fanciulla." I was so glad to see it live in Los Angeles twice
last September - once with Malfitano and Domingo, and once with Nina
Warren (covering an indisposed Malfitano very well) and Luis Lima.

However, if one were to choose an act of this opera to nominate as
"perfect," how can it not be the third?!  You get that wonderfully morose,
dark opening and Rance's evil muttering, then the lunatic "doo- dah"
chorus when Ramirez is captured.  Next comes Ramirez's outburst (I love
"give me the knife and I'll cut my own throat"), followed by his "hymn,"
"Ch'ella mi creda." Swiftly Minnie comes to the rescue, and she finally
gets a first-class Puccini tune to sing as she convinces the miners to
free Ramirez.  And then that great "fade-out" ending - unprecedented, I
believe.  All great music, dramatically cogent, brilliantly scored -
close to perfect in my book.

But act one?  I love "Fanciulla," but act one is long and "poky," which
I guess is appropriate for a Western!

Anyone who doesn't know the opera and who comes to act one after reading
that critic's praise is probably going to be think he's a bit wacky.
Worse yet, such a person might get tuned off "Fanciulla." That would
be sad.

Anyway, I guess I'll go copy the "intro" I posted on that "other" classical
discussion room site and post it on this one.  For now I am -

Chris Mullins
Redondo Beach CA
[log in to unmask]