Puccini’s seldom-performed ‘Girl of the Golden West’ is a festival highlight this summer

Every summer a little musical miracle takes place in the Colorado mountains. No, it’s not the famed Aspen Musical Festival or Bravo! Vail. It’s the Central City Opera Festival which proves, among other things, that you don’t need superstar names to create transcendently beautiful productions that remain engraved in the memory for years.

Each year the festival presents three shows in its 1878 gem of an opera house: two operas and one operetta or musical theatre production. And each year the festival’s talented artistic team comes up with inventive and sometimes surprising choices that take us away from the humdrum – or distressing – routine of our daily lives.

La Fanciulla Del West

This year the offerings are Puccini’s infrequently performed The Girl of the Golden West (La Fanciulla Del West), Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and Gilbert and Sullivan’s swashbuckling The Pirates of Penzance. Because the opening of Street Scene was delayed, as of this writing I have only been able to see Fanciulla and Pirates. But both provided enough pleasures to confirm that this festival will be as engaging as the past ones I have attended.

Like many opera buffs, I had never seen a production of Fanciulla — and for good reason. It is a challenging opera to stage, lacking the arias that draw audience attention and acclaim, and with only a single female character. Although the music is lovely, it doesn’t have the grandeur of Puccini’s most well-known operas like La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Tosca. But it can, and in Central Clty’s capable hands it does, have the power to keep us transfixed by the exquisite voices of the singers, the lushness of the music and the stunning staging. This is especially true in the final scene, which left me breathless as the brilliant men’s chorus filled the house with Puccini’s expansive score.

Unlike so many operas, which are set in exotic and far-flung locations, Puccini placed Fanciulla in a small mining town during the California Gold Rush. The story revolves around a love triangle among the sheriff Rance and the main leads – the disguised bandit Dick and Minnie, the female owner of the local saloon who is the object of Rance’s and Dick’s affections.

The plot is easy to follow and the entire cast completely convincing. As Minnie, Kara Shay Thomson is compelling as an actor and singer from the moment she appears onstage. Although Thomson has made her career mostly at regional opera companies, her voice and stage presence are worthy of the great opera houses of the world. Jonathan Burton (who has sung at Santa Fe Opera and Washington National Opera) is a perfect fit as Dick; his tenor and Thomson’s rich dramatic soprano meld perfectly.

This is such a powerful production of Fanciulla it is hard to imagine a more glorious presentation anywhere, and we are lucky Central City Opera’s team had the vision and artistic skill to bring it to fruition.

‘The Pirates of Penzance’ is one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular light operas. | Photo: Amanda Tipton Photography

Pirates

As for Pirates of Penzance, who doesn’t love a light opera from Gilbert and Sullivan? The music is accessible and memorable, the lyrics as clever as they come and the story sufficiently silly that it provides endless fun from start to finish. Despite their nonstop charms, though, it isn’t easy to stage G&S operettas. The singers always have a challenge on their hands with Gilbert’s rapid-fire lyrics, including the famous patter songs. Here it’s “The Very Model of a Modern Major-General.” And it’s easy to overdue the storyline’s humor, which risks turning any G&S show into slapstick rather than the satire of Victorian times that the two creators intended.

Fortunately, director Kyle Lang uses enough restraint here that we can easily enjoy the high jinks and the ridiculous twists and turns in the story. As the romantic lead Mabel, Jasmine Habersham brings a sweetness to her role plus a lovely soprano voice that rings through the house with every aria. As her suitor Frederic, Chris Mosz doesn’t quite reach the vocal heights of Habersham but is such an engaging actor that he is totally believable as Frederic navigates the ups and downs of his efforts to leave the pirate band to which he is indentured and to win the freedom he needs to marry his inamorata.

Read the OnStage Colorado interview with director Kyle Lang.

There are a few minor flaws in this Pirates, including the occasional muddled diction of some of the singers (mostly by the Major-General’s cadre of daughters) and Adelmo Guidarelli’s inability to totally master the enunciation of the Major-General’s patter song. But the male chorus more than makes up for any deficiencies particularly in the songs featuring them as police, where they manage Lang’s hilarious physical movements simultaneously with the vocal demands of this totally delightful production.

Also worthy of mention in both shows is the expansive playing of Central City Opera’s pick-up orchestra and the team of set, costume and lighting designers who make both shows visual feasts for the eyes and ears.