John Adams
Girls of the Golden West
Julia Bullock (soprano), Davóne Tines (bass-baritone), Paul Appleby (tenor) et al; Los Angeles Philharmonic/John Adams
Nonesuch 7559790049 123:26 mins (2CD)
Like The Death of Klinghoffer, and , John Adams’s new opera considers a critical moment in American history: the gold rush that inspired the California Dream – and all the dazzling inequality that went with it. The timing is interesting. Since the 2008 financial crash there has been renewed interest in gold, a fascination that plays out in reality TV shows such as that follow enterprising – and often eccentric – metal detectorists attempting to find nuggets left behind by the first mining wave. Librettist Peter Sellars draws from original sources to create characters that represent those propping up some people’s new-found wealth: care-worn minors Joe Cannon and Clarence, Ned Peters, a formerly enslaved man on the run, and Josefa Segovia, Ah Sing and Dame Shirley, the three real-life women from the opera’s title.
