The Good, the Bad and the Beauty

by Susanne Krekel

Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West at Munich Staatsoper, October 16 2022

This season, Munich Staatsoper is taking up its 2019 production, staged by Andreas Dresen. Why, we wondered on leaving the theatre, didn’t we feel any suspense, the work being dramatic as can be? A young girl, beautiful, brave, and good, in a gold miner’s camp: California in the gold-rush years. Before her very entry, we are already aware that these men are actually children, lost and lonely, their motor is not greed nor the need to impress Minnie - but what is it then?

Act I takes place in a saloon, and maybe Mathias Fischer-Dieskau has tried with his sombre and minimalist stage design, to give some depth and darkness to a rather banal storyline. After a hard day’s work, the men relax at the saloon, playing cards and drinking. One of them, however, is suffering from a bad bout of homesickness, and the other miners, in a moving chorus, sing of their own nostalgia, and start collecting money to pay for their friend’s voyage home. Lost and lonely children, and Minnie is their mother, Sunday-school teacher and general guardian, their mamma, as it were. And that obviously prevents any kind of desire. The only one to openly declare himself in love with Minnie is the county sheriff, Jack Rance. From his appearance on stage and before he has ever uttered a note we have noticed the presence of Claudio Sgura, who sings the part with a strong and lyric voice. Enter - the fatal stranger, come from Sacramento, who knows why, Dick Johnson. Turns out that Minnie and he have already met, and - fancy that! - were very pleased with each other. Oh! But the stranger is really a bandit, having come to town in order to steal the miners’ money, that Minnie keeps for them. Oh! And having heard from an accomplice that the sheriff is at his heels, he takes his leave, not before Minnie has invited him to her cabin in the woods. Ah! - Act II begins with Minnie getting all dressed up and ready for her date. She is moving, this Minnie, when she turns from a tomboy into a young woman in love. Malin Byström, blond and fresh, looks the part as much as she sings it perfectly, with a sweet and ample voice. Jonas Kaufmann is vocally impeccable as Johnson, although in the first acts the chemistry doesn’t seem really to work between the two of them. A pity that Daniele Rustioni, who directs the wonderful orchestra of the Staatsoper, has a tendency to confuse intensity and volume, covering the singers’ voices a bit too often. A pity, as he is otherwise attentive to the many many details in this never ending flow of melody, keeping everything together.

Minnie et Johnson declare each other their love and prepare for a chaste night of chatter on separate couches when Rance and the miners show up, Minnie hides Johnson in a cupboard - happy thought, and so original! - and Rance tells her about Johnson’s real identity and plans. When the men have gone, she confronts Johnson and tells him to leave. He comes back however, wounded and pursued by Rance. Minnie hides him in the attic, but a few drops of blood put Rance on the right track. Minnie, desperate, proposes a game of poker : if she wins, she will marry Rance and give up Johnson to him, if she wins, Johnson goes free. A moment of high drama, which passes without us having held our breath for a moment. Minnie has won, aha, well done… Rance accepts his defeat and leaves. Honorable Rance, he’s not such a bad boy after all.

Act III finds the miners again on the trail of Johnson, he is caught and condemned to death by hanging. And now Jonas Kaufmann comes into his own, here is the drama necessary for the phenomenon Jonas Kaufmann to work, and he sings, with this typical impression of held-back power and a voice of velvet, about his life as a bandit, and declares himself innocent of the murders laid at his door. He is not a bad guy either, the honorable Johnson. He already has the noose around his neck as Minnie turns up : armed with a revolver, she interposes herself between Johnson and the others, menacing to kill first him and then herself, if they won’t hear her out. She reminds the men of everything she has done for them, and they give in to her emotional blackmail and set her man free and let them go to a bright new future. The lovers sing their farewell to the snowy mountains, and now the voices blend beautifully and can be heard as well, and Mathias Fischer-Dieskau has found a beautiful image for this ending, the silhouette of a mountain range, topped by a narrow strand of light. Moving final and deserved applause and bravos for all the second roles and the chorus! And yet - where was the spark?