The Girl of the Golden West – reviews of 'witty' Puccini opera

What you need to know

The ENO's new production of Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West has opened at the Coliseum, London. Richard Jones directs Giacomo Puccini's 1910 opera based on American dramatist David Belasco's play of the same name.

It tells the story of Minnie, the pistol-packing, Bible-reading owner of a Californian gold-rush saloon-bar catering for a community of homesick miners hoping to strike it rich. Minnie is pursued by a predatory sheriff, but falls instead for a dashing outlaw.

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Keri-Lyn Wilson conducts, with Soprano Susan Bullock as Minnie, baritone Craig Colclough and tenor Peter Auty. Runs until 1 November.

What the critics like

There's "a fierce brilliance" to Jones's production of Puccini's gold-rush melodrama with its polyglot music of minstrel songs and homespun waltzes, says Anna Picard in The Times. "From the first bright blaze of music and light to the tear-jerking final image, this is a staging of great wit, discipline, panache and sincerity."

"Jones's simple, sincere approach to Puccini's masterpiece is a winning formula," says Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph. Wilson's richly embroidered and forceful conducting contributes greatly to a glorious evening of old-fashioned operatic pleasure.

Jones has a "subversive but very human" take on Puccini's wackiest melodrama, says David Nice on the Arts Desk. Quietly impressive and grounded in real emotions despite a plot that's often preposterous, this production makes us love and respect Puccini the more.

What they don't like

Puccini's Wild West tale seems to ask for a touch of Hollywood glamour, but the ENO's production is "intentionally downbeat", says Richard Fairman in the Financial Times. The utilitarian singing makes this opera come across as much more "verismo" (a drama about everyday life) than it really is.