‘Girls’ re-examines Calif Gold Rush

Berlin theatre scraps ‘Richard III’ over security fears

NEW YORK, Nov 8, (Agencies): Move over Puccini, and make way for the Girls.

A new opera by American composer John Adams aims to tell the true story of California’s Gold Rush, capturing the excitement but also the greed, brutality and racism that followed the quest for instant riches as prospectors from all over the world flocked to the Sierra Nevada in the early 1850s.

Premiering at the San Francisco Opera on Nov 21, the work is titled “Girls of the Golden West,” a twist on Puccini’s 1910 opera, “Girl of the Golden West” (“La Fanciulla del West” in the original Italian), which offered a heavily romanticized view of the period.

As usual with Adams in recent years, his collaborator is Peter Sellars, who created the libretto entirely from original sources — letters, diaries, songs and speeches — and also will direct.

The “Girls” are three women of diverse backgrounds, two of them actual historical figures. One is Louise Clappe (sung by soprano Julia Bullock), an Easterner who moved to California with her doctor-husband and documented life in the mining camps in a series of letters under the pseudonym Dame Shirley. Those letters form the backbone of Sellars’ libretto.

The second historical character is a Mexican-American woman named Josefa (mezzo J’Nai Bridges), who was hanged in Downieville in 1851. The third Girl is a composite, a Chinese prostitute given the name Ah Sing (coloratura Hye Jung Lee). Others in the cast include tenor Paul Appleby and baritone Ryan McKinny as miners. Grant Gershon will conduct.

The Associated Press sat down with Adams and Sellars recently to discuss the project. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Associated Press: Your previous operas have tended to deal with more recent events: ‘Nixon in China,’ ‘The Death of Klinghoffer’ and ‘Doctor Atomic’ (the first two had librettos by Alice Goodman). What attracted you to a subject further back in American history?

Sellars: La Scala had asked me to make my debut directing Puccini’s ‘Girl of the Golden West.’ ... Now

Nice Things” and two songs with ellipses, the single “... Ready for It” and a new song called “So It Goes...” (RTRS) anybody who knows me would not call and ask me to do that, but I did the research ... and that libretto is pure popcorn. So I said to John, ‘Let’s have the great American opera about California.’

Adams: I have very strong feelings about California. I’ve lived there for over 40 years, and I have this shack high up in Sierra mountains . ... I like the idea of an updated work which tells the story through the voices of the real people with our contemporary consciousness of what really went on during that time . ... Much of the opera is upbeat, kind of funny and entertaining, and it’s only as it goes along that we suddenly feel events getting out of control.

Sellars: Which I think is what the Gold Rush felt like. At the beginning spirits are high and every day your luck could change any minute, and then two years into it things got tougher and it winds up a bit like Silicon Valley, where some people are going to be very rich and other people are going to be nothing.

AP: Why choose a title that so closely mimics Puccini’s opera? Is it an implied critique of his work?

Adams: I have no intention of some sophomoric snarkiness. Nobody’s ever going to accuse me of competing with Puccini for writing melodies . ... I’m going to tell you something and I’m not being coy. I actually don’t know the Puccini opera. I looked at about 10 minutes of it on YouTube, and it just wasn’t my cup of tea. It seems like a perfectly respectable period piece in the same way as Jack London. I think our opera is a lovely counterpoint.

Sellars: Puccini, of course, was a million miles away, not at all on location, so he was writing with images from silent movies ... and the research just called forth a whole other set of stories. The minute you go inside under the skin of the characters there’s some pretty amazing skin to go underneath.

AP: What is the advantage of relying entirely on original sources rather than creating your own words? And how do you create dialogue between characters?

Sellars: I think it’s like film right

LOS ANGELES:

The hip-hop world was stunned Monday when a Pennsylvania judge sentenced rapper Meek Mill to an unexpectedly harsh two to four years in now where everybody can feel that energy is in documentary, and what’s interesting is this docu-fiction where people sit on this edge between what happened and what the power of art can bring to that . ... That sense of, this is our history ... and not just a take on it but this is actually our history. People did say that. Somebody did that. As for dialogue, it’s like cutting film. You just start cutting inside the material and the more you cut away then the more space becomes available and then you start doing some weaving and eventually there’s some heat. It’s like that thing where you say, I wonder what would have happened if this person had met that person? ... For me the pleasure is to imagine what if they had a conversation, what would that be like?

ISTANBUL:

Also:

One of Germany’s best known theatre companies has scrapped at the last minute an eagerly-awaited visit to the Istanbul Theatre Festival this month due to “security” fears for the company, it said Tuesday.

The Schaubuehne Berlin was due to stage two performances of Shakespeare’s great historical play “Richard III” on Nov 17 and 18 at the festival.

The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), which organises the festival, said on Monday that the performances had “unfortunately been cancelled upon the company’s last minute decision.”

Their statement did not give further details.

But the Schaubuehne said Tuesday that the performances were cancelled due to “concerns over our employees” amid the crackdown in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the wake of the July 15, 2016 failed coup bid.

It said that the arrest of several rights activists and journalists, who have included German nationals, in the last months had led to “great uncertainty” among its staff about the trip.

“As it was impossible to give those involved a guarantee for their personal security in the current situation, we have been obliged not to travel to Turkey,” it said in a statement to AFP.

prison for violating his probation. Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley cited a failed drug test and unapproved travel, stemming from a 2008 gun and drug case. He was immediately taken into custody.

The move led Jay-Z to make a rare Facebook post: “The sentence handed down by the Judge — against the recommendation of the Assistant District Attorney and Probation Officer — is unjust and heavy handed,” he wrote. “We will always stand by and support Meek Mill, both as he attempts to right this wrongful sentence and then in returning to his musical career.” (RTRS)

LISBON, Portugal:

The organizers of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest say performers from 42 countries will take part, including Russia which missed this year’s event amid a diplomatic spat with host Ukraine.

The contest is being held in the Portuguese capital Lisbon for the first time, after Salvador Sobral’s gentle ballad gave Portugal its first win in 53 years of competing.

Organizers said Tuesday the final will be held on May 12, with the semifinals taking place on the previous Tuesday and Thursday. The venue will be an entertainment complex alongside the River Tagus. (AP)