Warren Sings Heroically in Last-Minute ‘Girl’ Change

Two cast changes--one scheduled, the other last-minute--illuminated the penultimate performance of Puccini’s “Girl of the Golden West” by Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Thursday night.

As planned, Luis Lima took over the role of Dick Johnson, which had been sung by Placido Domingo at the opening shows of the run. The veteran tenor from Argentina, not seen on the L.A. Opera stage since a series of “Madame Butterflys” in 1996, returned to give a solid, musically satisfying performance.

The surprise change was announced by company spokesman Peter Somogyi from the stage: Catherine Malfitano, suffering a viral infection for several days, had decided, just one hour before the 7:30 curtain, that she was not well enough to go on. In her place, her cover in the role of Minnie, American soprano Nina Warren, would perform. Warren sang heroically.

A musician from California trained at the Manhattan and Juilliard schools in New York, Warren has extensive European credits and she sang the alternate Turandot with L.A. Opera in June.

Her voice is healthy, sizable and handsome; occasionally, her high notes grow wild or strident, yet for the most part she delivered consistent beauty of tone throughout this long and taxing part, which demands ready resources of volume, lyricism and steel. And her acting as the Bible-reading, gun-toting Minnie who loves the outlaw Johnson proved credible and charming in every scene.

The chemistry between Warren and Lima, and their vocal pairing, proved serendipitous. At a boyish 54--an age Lima achieved a week ago--the tenor still looks the handsome Puccini hero, who in this case is also a dark and threatening outlaw. The voice carries on, and Lima’s honeyed tone and elegant charisma make his a memorable Johnson. By the time he got to “Ch’ella mi creda” in the final act--unlike Domingo, he sang it in the original key, by the way--Lima seemed to tire, yet that fatigue served mostly as an emblem of the outlaw’s long road to redemption.

In this act, as in the opening one, conductor Simone Young occasionally let Puccini’s full orchestra overpower the singers. Some temptations are too great to resist.

The opera has one more performance to go. Lima is scheduled to sing Johnson; Malfitano promises to return as Minnie.

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Los Angeles Opera, “The Girl of the Golden West,” Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A., Sun. at 2 p.m. $30-$170. (213) 365-3500.