La fille du Far West by Puccini, Du (2024/2024), Dirigé par Tatjana Gürbaca,, Chef d'orchestre Daniele Rustioni, Opéra, Lyon, France

In Puccini’s work, there are no characters more different from one another than Cio-Cio San, the little geisha in Madama Butterfly who died heartbroken because of the man who seduced and betrayed her, and Minnie, the Girl of the Golden West, with her cheating at cards, handling of firearms, and her wanting and getting outlaw Dick Johnson. Madama Butterly exists solely from male desire, she is an old-world heroine, while New World’s Girl of the Golden West brazenly acts on her own desire. She echoes Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar, or Tarantino’s Django Unchained, as mentioned by Polish artist Barbara Wysocka, who directed the piece. This is the first time that this 1910 opera, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, is presented in Lyon. With his usual gusto, Daniele Rustioni conveys this vitally powerful music replete with intensely lyrical, violent, basic feelings.