The great words of Douglass are powerfully sung by DavГіne Tines in the central role of the fugitive slave Ned Peters. The pastiche of words was drawn from a number of historic writings, including minersвЂ™ ballads (Adams writes loud, churning, minimalist music for them) Frederick DouglassвЂ™ great speech, вЂњWhat to the Slave is the Fourth of July?вЂќ, but there are also passages by Alfonsina Storni, Mark Twain, and Shakespeare (a large chunk of Macbeth), as well as Chinese-Californian poetry of the period. Certainly, a few moments of lyricism and soaring drama emerged, but AdamsвЂ™ musical imagination was not fostered by Peter SellarsвЂ™ verbose libretto. The more surprise then when Girls of the Golden West-in its San Francisco Opera world premiere-proved, on the whole, ponderous and dull (seen Nov. BridgesвЂ™s Josefa, a Mexican woman who receives a death sentence from a kangaroo court, is fiercely dignified, and entrancing in the lullaby вЂњVen esta noche amado, querido.A scene from San Francisco Opera's Girls of the Golden West Photo: Cory WeaverДuring recent decades, John Adams has composed a range of highly successful operas, including the repertory standard Nixon in China (1987). Tines sings before being walked offstage with a gun to his back. With a penetrating bite, he delivers the setting of text from Frederick DouglassвЂ™s вЂњWhat to a Slave Is the Fourth of July?вЂќ: вЂњThe Fourth of July is yours not mine,вЂќ Mr. The most bitter music of the evening is reserved for the bass-baritone DavГіne Tines, as the doomed former slave Ned Peters. (Genuinely tender is the baritone Elliot Madore, as RamГіn.) Ryan McKinnyвЂ™s bass-baritone is terrifyingly masculine, and Hye Jung Lee, as the sympathetic prostitute Ah Sing, has an enchantingly delicate soprano voice capable of shocking power. The tenor Paul Appleby, smooth and tender in fare like Mozart, has immersed himself in the role of Joe Cannon with a Missouri twang and desperate fury.

SellarsвЂ™s staging and John HeginbothamвЂ™s choreography.)Д«ut elsewhere, this score brings out some of the most inspired performances youвЂ™ll find among its cast of young stars. (ItвЂ™s not promising, though, that it was also limp and lazy in acting out Mr. The Dutch National Opera chorus, which sang with unfortunate imprecision all night, may still be settling into these passages. Adams has written some of the most sophisticated and stirring choral music in modern opera here, he most often saves it for new settings of old folk songs that take a chilling turn from boisterous to sinister. Adams also suggests Weill and BrechtвЂ™s вЂњRise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,вЂќ a similar opera about money, rowdiness and savagery. But, with an accordion and a delightful taste of the lowbrow, Mr. It has the propulsive momentum that runs through most of his music, and playful touches of Americana like galloping rhythms and expansive fifths.

AdamsвЂ™s score, played with exactitude and enthusiasm by the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Backstage workings are clearly visible period costumes are juxtaposed with red Solo cups inside a bar with the appearance of a roadside dive somewhere in the Sierra Nevada.Д¬lose listeners may also hear some Brecht in Mr. But by turning to naturalism, he undercuts his original, still-present concept of a California history pageant Г la Brecht - especially because the Brechtian set design, by David Gropman, is nearly unchanged.

SellarsвЂ™s solution, with a slightly altered staging in this revival, is to put more bodies onstage, to have characters spend less time addressing the audience and more time interacting with one another.

Opera girls of the golden west