TORONTO -- If you think Clint Eastwood launched the genre of spaghetti westerns, consider this: In 1910, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini turned David Belasco's stageplay, The Girl Of The Golden West, into an opera called La Fanciulla del West. He blended Italian opera and the folklore of the American West into a package that was, in its day, every bit as successful as those later movies of Sergio Leone (which were, in fact, shot in Spain.).

In a revival of Puccini's work, which opened at the Hummingbird Centre Saturday, the Canadian Opera Company falls more than a little short of a triumph in the field of fusion entertainment.
Full Story