NEW PUCCINI OPERA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 14

NEW PUCCINI OPERA.

_ «a ■ . Before an invited audience of tho elect of New York artistic circles a preliminary performance of Signor Puccini's "Girl of the Golden West" was given (says the Nevr York correspondent of the Daily Mail) on Bth December at theMetropolitan Opera House . The composer wac present, and also Mr. David Belasco, the author of the drama oil which the operatic libretto is founded. Signor Caruso, Miss Dcstinn, pud Signor Amato sang the chief roles ; Signor,.Toscanini conducted. Signor Puccini's new work does not depart radically from the style of his earlier works, and, in fact, suggests "Madame Butterfly," i"La Tosca," and "La Boheme" frequently in the melodic turn and the orchestral treatment. The new score has characteristic lyrical movements, and the music is yet always in keeping with the swiftly • moving and exciting melodrama which forms the libretto. The most striking scene is one where the Cahfornian heroine hides her wounded outlaw lover in a loft, and the dripping of his blood on to the hand of the sheriff, who stands beneath, reveals the presence of the fugitive to the pursuer. The heroine 'thereupon plays a game of poker with the sheriff for the life of her lover, and wins through cheating. In this scene Signor Puccini has risen to his greatest heights in musical realism. Signor | Puccini and Mr. Belasco were called before the curtain repeatedly, and afterwards the gossip of the musical people present amounted to an almost unanimous augury for the popular success of the work.