Set in the American West during the California Gold Rush, "La fanciulla del West" marked a significant departure from Giacomo Puccini's previous and best- known works." Puccini and the Girl" is the first book to explore this important but often misunderstood opera that became the earliest work by a major European composer to receive an American premiere when it opened at New York's Metropolitan Opera House in 1910.
Adapted from American playwright David Belasco's Broadway production, The Girl of the Golden West, Fanciulla was Puccini's most consciously modern work, and its Met debut...