Studio recordings of contemporary opera are like hen’s teeth these days, making the debut on disc of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West something to celebrate. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by the composer himself, and with most of the original cast, it’s the August Limelight Recording of the Month. Weaving historical reportage, poetry and miner’s songs into a rich melange, unlike Puccini’s opera, it exposes the dark underbelly of the California gold rush. Clive Paget caught up with Adams to learn more about the work’s genesis and just how hard it is to get your work recorded these days.

Where did the original idea for the opera come from?

Well, I think if I remember correctly, that Peter Sellars, my longtime collaborator, had been asked to stage Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, I think it was at La Scala. Reading the libretto – which obviously dates from a very different period and consciousness – he was playing around with the idea of what a similar story of women in the California gold rush would be like but seen through our contemporary eyes.

John Adams John Adams. Photo ©...