Search - Giacomo Puccini, Antonino Votto, La Scala Theater Orchestra :: Puccini: La Fanciulla del West

"Franco Corelli gives us the most vocally thrilling Dick Johnson of all... his burnished, brawny tone makes him both lovable and heroic. Tito Gobbi's Jack Rance is the perfect foil; he seems to sing the entire role through clenched teeth, expressing scorn, yearing and frustration in every phrase. Gigliola Frazzoni is largely forgotten today, but she was an admired verista in Italy in the 1950s. Her Minnie... is unfailingly passionate." -Gramophone Live performance, Milan, April 4, 1956. Puccini made a big hit with the American public when his new opera, The Girl of the Golden West, had its first performance, not in Italy but at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with Emmy Destinn and Enrico Caruso in the leading roles, and Toscanini conducting. The enthralled audience called out the composer and cast forty-seven times and placed on Puccini's head a silver crown bearing the national colors of Italy and the US. When Franco Corelli died recently in Milan at the age of eighty-two, the opera world lost one of its most colorful figures, and the most thrilling Italian tenor of his generation. With his powerful voice and movie-star looks, Corelli became an opera matinee idol from the 1950s until his retirement in 1976. Opera d'Oro's Grand Tier series presents the best-selling Opera d'Oro titles with libretto and deluxe new packaging at mid-price!