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Flora Willson for Building a Library sifts through some of the available recordings of Puccini's opera La fanciulla del West.

Puccini's La fanciulla del West, or Girl of the West, is set in a mining camp at the foot of the Cloudy Mountains, California. If it has fewer famous arias than other Puccini operas, it is greatly admired for its colourful orchestration with influences from composers such as Debussy and Richard Strauss, while at the same time having a unique sound world.

The opera was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, in 1910. Puccini himself thought it one of his greatest works. The conductor Arturo Toscanini called it a "great symphonic poem".

Recommended recording: Carol Neblett (Minnie) Placido Domingo (Dick Johnson), Sherrill Milnes (Jack Rance), Royal Opera House Orchestra, Zubin Mehta (conductor)

Available on:
DG 4748402 (2CD)

Other recommended recordings:

Below is a shortlist of other recordings which Flora Willson also liked, although we can鈥檛 guarantee the availability of these discs.

PUCCINI: La fanciulla del West
Renata Tebaldi (Minnie), Mario del Monaco (Dick Johnson), Cornell MacNeil (Jack Rance), Orchestra e Coro dell鈥橝ccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Franco Capuana (conductor)
DECCA 4215952 (CD)

PUCCINI: La fanciulla del West
Nina Stemme (Minnie), Jonas Kaufmann (Dick Johnson), Tomasz Konieczny (Jack Rance), Orchester, Chor der Wiener Staatsoper, Franz Welser-Most (conductor)
SONY 88875064069 (DVD Video) or SONY 88875064079 (Blu-ray)

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