DONIZETTI

 

La fille du Régiment

 

Complete Opera

 

Backstage with 'la fille'

 

The cast and conductor introduce Donizetti’s opera A film by Roberto Giannarelli

 

1 Titles

2 Marie — the daughter of the regiment

3 Tonio — falling in love

4 “Ah! mes amis” and the nine high Cs

5 The vocal challenges

6 La marquise de Berkenfield

7 The love duet

8 Tonio joins the army

9 The revelation

10 Farewell to the regiment

11 A lesson in etiquette

12 The arranged marriage

13 The reunion

14 The declaration of love

15 Marie and Tonio together at last

 

A sparkling new Decca opera DVD of Donizetti's opéra-comique - first performed in Paris in 1840. Juan Diego Flórez proves he's the new King Of The High C's in one of his greatest stage roles. Sung in the original French with subtitles in English, German, Italian, Spanish and Chinese.

 

Includes a sensational performance of Tonio's aria 'Ah! mes amis...' - WITH 9 TOP Cs - sung not once BUT TWICE!!

 

Donizetti's sparkling bel canto favourite made famous by Luciano Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland.

 

Sensational Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez and acclaimed Italian soprano Patrizia Ciofi lead a superb ensemble cast in Donizetti’s sparkling opera-comique from the Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa.

 

This acclaimed production sets the action in the final days of World War II. Marie is the daughter of an American army captain, Tonio is a young French villager whose love for her leads him to join the American ranks. When the secret of Marie's birth is revealed and her Mother insists on an aristocratic suitor, only an appeal to the memory of young love can reunite them...

 

Stage Director Emilio Sagi A Teatro Comunale di Bologna production revived by the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova

 

A NOTE FROM THE STAGE DIRECTOR - EMILIO SAGI

When I came to look closely at this Donizetti opera, I realised that the composer had combined his own very Italian inspiration with all the sparkle and brilliance of French operetta. In my view, he wanted to create an out-and-out comedy, but one tinged with nostalgia and peopled with sympathetic characters rather than caricatures. My aim, therefore, when I began work on this Fille, was to bring greater insight into the psychology of its protagonists. I wanted them to be human beings, not puppets, to give them their own strengths and weaknesses, and so make them both more lifelike and more entertaining.

 

I transferred the action from the operetta-like setting of the Napoleonic wars to that of a small village in France in the final days of World War II, after the withdrawal of the Germans and before the arrival of the Allies. I felt that placing the characters in the context of more recent historical events would give them a greater sense of reality as well as adding to the drama itself.

 

Act 1, originally set in a village square, now takes place in a typical family-run bar in rural France. I thought Marie could be the daughter of an American army captain who had had a torrid affair in the twenties with the young and lovely Marquise de Berkenfield. As in the original version, the second act unfolds in a salon within the Marquise’s chateau. We gave it an Art Deco feel, and filled the house with incompetent, but appealing and amusing servants, inspired by the films of Ernst Lubitsch.Then, in a gradual “crescendo”, we come to a finale whose tangled intrigue is worthy of Rossini, with the ball at which the Duchess tries to arrange Marie’s marriage to her son, the modern young Duke. We all had a wonderful time during rehearsals, and I hope that that sense of enjoyment comes across to everyone who watches our production of this charming, intelligent opera.

(Translation Susannah Howe)

 

Decca 2DVDs 0743146