Composer John Adams' 'Girls of the Golden West' Portrays Dark Underbelly of Gold Rush Era

28:12

Michael Krasny

Nov 30, 2017 at

Save Article

Failed to save article

Please try again

Composer John Adams’ “Girls of the Golden West” explores gender and racial tension during the California Gold Rush. It plays the San Francisco Opera through Dec. 10. (Photo: Deborah O'Grady)

The sound of fortune-hunters’ pickaxes digging for gold in 1850s California marks the opening scene of “Girls of the Golden West” by composer John Adams. In creating the opera, Adams and librettist Peter Sellars drew heavily on the letters of a doctor’s wife, Louise Clappe, who exposed the brutality toward women and ethnic tensions that broiled under the optimism of the Gold Rush. Adams joins us in-studio to discuss “Girls of the Golden West,” which plays the San Francisco Opera through mid-December.

Guests:
John Adams, composer, “Girls of the Golden West”

Related Stories:

Sponsored

lower waypoint

next waypoint

First Trump Criminal Trial Underway in New York The Beauty in Finding ‘Other People’s Words’ in Your Own What the 99 Cents Only Stores Closure Means to Californians Bay Area Diaspora Closely Watching India’s Upcoming Election are u addicted to ur phone José Vadi’s “Chipped” Looks at Life from a Skateboarder’s Lens ‘The Notorious PhD’ on How Hip Hop Made America San Francisco Voters Face a Crowded and Contentious Mayor’s Race Who Is Responsible For One of the Largest Internet Hacks Ever?So You Want to Be a DJ?