Los Angeles Philharmonic - John Adams: Girls of the Golden West (2024)

Nonesuch releases the first recording of John Adams’ 2017 opera, Girls of the Golden West, on April 26, 2024. Longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars created the opera’s libretto, drawing from original sources, and also directs this performance. The composer leads the LA Phil in this live recording from Disney Hall. Girls of the Golden West also features the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Grant Gershon, and a cast led by Julia Bullock, Davóne Tines, Paul Appleby, Hye Jung Lee, Elliot Madore, Daniela Mack, and Ryan McKinny.

Girls of the Golden West brings true stories of the California Gold Rush to life. The opera rejects the whitewashed romantic view of California in the early days of the Gold Rush and highlights the heroism, passion, racial conflicts, love, cruelty, and truth during one of the most significant events in American history. Sellars used memoirs and historical texts to inform the opera that has been called by the Los Angeles Times “the most powerful opera of the moment.” The work had its world premiere in 2017 at the San Francisco Opera and has since also been presented by the Dutch National Opera.

Tracklist
01 - Girls of the Golden West, Act I Scene 1_ It was a driving, vigorous, restless population
02 - Girls of the Golden West, Act I Scene 1_ Wagon Ride - Ned Peters was a hustler
03 - Girls of the Golden West, Act I Scene 2_ My name is Joe
04 - Girls of the Golden West, Act I Scene 2_ Now he consoles himself
05 - Girls of the Golden West, Act I Scene 3_ A gambler’s life I do admire
06 - Girls of the Golden West, Act I Scene 3_ Josefa, you remember
07 - Girls of the Golden West, Act I Scene 4_ It's bone, it’s backbone
08 - Girls of the Golden West, Act I Scene 4_ Comin' up from Red Dog
09 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 1_ The Raven
10 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 2_ The attack on the Mexicans
11 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 3_ It seems like midnight
12 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 3_ What is this celebration to me_
13 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 4_ This very nearly was the cause
14 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 4_ Ven esta noche
15 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 4_ Blessed and praised
16 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 4_ I'm going far away from my creditors
17 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 5_ The Downieville mob
18 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 5_ Tu me quieres alba
19 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Scene 5_ It's four long years (Lousy Miner)
20 - Girls of the Golden West, Act II Epilogue_ Sometimes I lounge forlornly to the window