The Girl of the Golden West
Reviews of the 2006 Berkeley Opera production
and David Scott Marley's adaptation
"The language fits these characters like well-worn
boots"
Never was a great opera so in need of a good English
translation — and now it has one courtesy of David
Scott Marley and Berkeley Opera. The new production
was unveiled on Saturday at the Julia Morgan Center for
the Arts. It was vividly theatrical and, despite some
uneven singing, it conveyed the richness of one of
Puccini's most complex scores. All of this is great news
for those of us who treasure this underappreciated
masterpiece.
[Marley's] idiomatic language fits these characters like
well-worn boots; it never calls attention to itself but
is suited to singing. And, as he notes in the program, he
has taken the opportunity to strengthen plot exposition
and character, where possible. The rewriting of Rance's
Act I aria to show his recent history with Minnie is the
most significant of these contributions. Marley also uses
Spanish and Chumash (an American Indian language) in the
libretto, furthering the naturalism and better giving
those characters their own voices.
"Fluent and distinctly American"
The Berkeley Opera's wonderful new version at the Julia
Morgan Theatre returns the piece to its American roots,
with a canny new English libretto by David Scott Marley
that draws on both the opera and the David Belasco play
that was its source.
[Marley] keeps the language fluent and distinctly
American.