Lovers of contemporary opera are in for a treat with our August Recording of the Month. John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West got a mixed reception when it opened in San Francisco in 2017 (although I was pretty positive reviewing it for Limelight). Now, a thoroughly convincing recording means everyone can make up their own minds (Nonesuch 075597900484).

The Californian Gold Rush drew unprecedented numbers of fortune seekers from around the world, fermenting the kind of interracial antagonisms that are again assaulting our modern world. “Adams’ score is infused with accents of Stravinskian dissonance throughout, Mahler at its end, and, if you can believe it, Gilbert and Sullivan along the way,” explains Michael Quinn.

Most of the outstanding cast have been with this piece since the premiere. “Davóne Tines provides the most charismatic of the male roles, the newly freed Ned, putative love interest of Dame Shirley (nom de plume of Massachusetts-born inveterate letter-writer Louise Clappe) who serves as the fulcrum around which the opera pivots, and to whom Julia Bullock brings a zesty lyrical warmth, wry commentary and authority,” Quinn continues. “The Los Angeles Philharmonic plays with persuasive conviction under Adams’ baton...