Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West/Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series

… an insistence that the Indians Wowkle and Billy marry in a church to legitimize their child. Puccini made Sheriff Rance far more sinister and savage than his characterization in Belasco: like Scarpia, Rance is overcome by an impassioned monomania to possess Minnie; he makes an attempt to rape Minnie in the opera, a scenario that did not occur in the Belasco play. ix years were to elapse between the completion of Madama Butterfly and the premiere of The Girl of the Golden West: