Gaetano Donizetti - La Fille du regiment / Dessay, Florez, Palmer, Corbelli, French, Campanella, Pelly (Royal Opera House 2007)

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
This DVD version of Donizetti's comic opera zooms right to the top of any list of essential videos for opera fans. It may not be the composer's best work, but given a top-notch production with world class singing actors, it brings vocal thrills and an abundance of laughs, a combination that's hard to beat. The stars are Juan Diego Florez and Natalie Dessay, both unbeatable in bel canto roles, and both in top form here. Florez's mellifluous tenor is flexible enough to make child's play of the terrifying (to other tenors) nine high C's in Ah! mes amis," and supple enough to make his tender love arias moving. Dessay is equally comfortable in the stratospheric coloratura passages and poignant in such heart-tugging set-pieces as her farewell to her regimental "fathers" and her misery as the victim of the Marquise's well-meaning attempts to teach her to be an aristocratic lady. She's also a terrific comic actress. In her first appearance she's doing the regiment's laundry, and her antics with the iron and the ironing board while singing elaborately difficult coloratura passages induce belly laughs. But then, so do her comic acting in many other scenes, such as her Act II entry in a silk dress and full petticoat, her walk a wonderful parody of a "lady's" heel-to-toe gait. That moment alone is worth the price of admission. Lesser roles too, are done to perfection. Felicity Palmer, a long-time Covent Garden favorite, is a delicious Marquise de Berkenfield, and Donald Maxwell, is her apt partner as Hortensius, her servant. Sergeant Sulpice, the heroine's protector, is well-sung and acted by Alessandro Corbelli, and Dawn French almost steals the show as the overbearing Duchess. Conductor Bruno Campanella leads a spirited performance, enhanced by the fine playing by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House. Laurent Pelly's stage direction is wonderful for its comic touches and Chantal Thomas' simple but effective sets add to the delights. The video direction efficiently serves the staging, focusing on the action and the singers without adding extraneous shots that detract from the musical flow. All of which makes this DVD a can't-miss for opera fans. --Dan Davis La Fille du regiment is in 16:9 ratio. Sound options include PCM Stereo, Dolby 5.1 Surround and DTS 5.1 Surround. Subtitles include English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

Description
In January 2007, superstar soprano Natalie Dessay, joined on stage by acclaimed tenor Juan Diego Florez dazzled British audiences in Laurent Pelly's new production of Donizetti's "LA FILLE DU REGIMENT". The perfectly staged & cast production became the operatic event of the year, receiving rave press reviews & rapturous audience ovations.

Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

From Covent Garden: The same production and cast that has come to The Met April 28, 2008
57 out of 61 found this review helpful

It's hard to write about this Covent Garden production without comparing it to the Teatro Carlo Felice production from 2005 which is also on DVD and features Juan Diego Florez. (In fact, both productions are updated to one of our 20th Century "World Wars," this one to WWI, the Teatro Carlo Felice production to WWII.) So, I'll compare the two since some readers may just want to buy one of them. I gave the other five stars and this one four, but I wouldn't make the choice on that basis alone. If you want to see what played at The Met in the spring of 2008, or if Natalie Dessay is one of your favorite performers, this is the DVD to buy.

Juan Diego Florez sings spectacularly in both productions. In this production, he does not encore "Ah, mes amis," so you'll have to do with just nine of his thrillingly precise high C's. However, I think he's more relaxed at Covent Garden, having added two years to his onstage experience.

Patrizia Ciofi of the Teatro Carlo Felice production cannot compete with Natalie Dessay as a comic actress. Beverly Sills called the role of Marie, "Lucille Ball with high notes." That describes Dessay's performance perfectly. Her high notes are indeed the highlight of her singing and her comic antics are a delight to watch. As I wrote in my review of the Teatro Carlo Felice production, Ciofi is not a natural comedienne. But, in my opinion, Ciofi has the superior voice; it is fuller, more varied in tone and more textured. She creates a more operatic Marie.

The Teatro Carlo Felice production gives the relationship between Sulpice and the Marquise a flirtatious turn. It adds a lot to their otherwise rather dull roles (dull compared to other supporting roles in Donizetti comedies, such as Dr. Dulcamara and Giannetta in "L'Elisir d'Amore").

Finally, the Teatro Carlo Felice production comes with a second DVD devoted to behind-the-scenes material that is as good as it gets. (I describe it in detail in my review of the Teatro Carlo Felice production.)

There are several reasons you might prefer this production to the Teatro Carlo Felice of 2005 even though I think the other is of higher quality overall. First, the Covent Garden production is the same production and the same cast (except for the speaking role of the Duchess of Crackentorp) that played at The Met this spring and was shown in movie theaters around the world. So, if you want to see that Met production, this is the DVD to buy. (Of course, Covent Garden features a different chorus, orchestra, and conductor.) Secondly, if you love Natalie Dessay, I recommend this production over Teatro Carlo Felice.

I thought the Teatro Carlo Felice production had more to offer: the encored "Ah, mes amis," the superior singing of Patrizia Ciofi, the delightful relationship that develops between Sulpice and the Marquise, and finally, that bonus DVD. You can't go wrong with either production.

3 out of 5 stars

La Fille Du Regiment: The Cartoon Version May 9, 2008
33 out of 49 found this review helpful

I can see that my judgment of this newest version of "Fille du Regiment' places me in a distinct minority among reviewers here. Perhaps I missed those overriding virtues so many have seen in it, but for my money the performance, except in one area, was about as enjoyable as a root canal. Despite its own absurdities of shifted time setting and even more irrational military alliances, the Ciofi/Florez version, I'd argue, has more to offer grown-up opera lovers than this childish cartoon, a compendium of the excesses and cliches of allegedly "cutting-edge" Regie theater.

First of all, as several others have noticed, there is a marked ugliness distinguishing the sets; indeed, they are eyesores from the opening curtain to the finish, but a necessity for Eurotrash productions ever on guard against the seductiveness of beauty.

Next, all of the characters onstage, principals and choristers, are kept frenetically "busy," on the apparent assumption that the audience is largely composed of Attention Deficit Disorder sufferers. Thus we ascend from an unconvincing chorus line of dancing, pitchfork carrying peasants to a heroine who manically irons, does Chaplin like salutes, and turns cartwheels, and to a hero who late in the action even enters driving a tank onto the stage. As directed here, the usually brilliant singing actress Dessay made me nostalgic for the bad old days of stand and deliver singing, the days when one would no more look at an opera star than stare at a radio. The temptation was strong to shout out to her, "Don't do anything for a change! Just stand there!" Not only did a straining after "too much cute" blemish her performance throughout, but she or her director seemed clueless even to recognize when the show was over. Therefore, during the curtain calls, she repeated certain of her earlier "stage business" maneuvers accompanied by shrieks and parrot-like squawks. Happily, the other principal, the hero sung by Florez, chose or was allowed here to maintain his natural grace and dignity. In my view, the principals were to a person crude caricatures of the more richly comic figures they are in the libretto, and their reconception here is a testimony to the vulgarity of the director. I won't speculate about what the ecstatic reception they were accorded may say about the nascent barbarism of the audience.

Why then the three stars? The lead singers who'd be worth listening to if they were singing the telephone book are the answer. Though I, too, noticed Dessay's tendency toward "too much pressure" on some fortissimo top notes, giving them a scream-like quality, she is a soprano of prodigious coloratura gifts. When she sang softly, and her director, save for making her pull a ridiculous clothes line about the stage, let her be, she sang a particularly beautiful "Il faut partir." Similarly, Florez, freed for several minutes from directorial "busyness," was allowed to sing another wonderful "Ah! mes amis." In these moments, the opera came alive, though they were at odds with the gross overall vision and tendency of the production. Donizetti, Ciofi and Florez - and opera viewers - were better served in the earlier Teatro Carlo Felice revival.

5 out of 5 stars

Bravo to Juan Diego! May 10, 2008
27 out of 33 found this review helpful

This "Fille du Regiment" dvd is a video of the Laurent Pelly production, first debuted at Covent Garden. It was also used at the Metropolitan in a recent series of sold-out performances. This dvd is a welcome release for those who saw or heard the sensational performances, as it has much the same cast.

I was one of the lucky people who saw Florez sing Tonio at the Met this spring. It was an unforgettable experience. After a perfectly sung "Ah mes amis," the audience roared for so long that Florez encored the piece, thus singing 18 high C's in one evening. After the second "Ah mes amis," the entire audience gave him a standing ovation. Although in this dvd there is no encore, there are still 9 high C's, sung with such ease and beauty that he truly makes it look easy. In the second act he also sings a beautiful "Pour me rapprocher de Marie." If anyone was born to sing Tonio it was Florez, whose combination of boyish innocence and vocal agility fit the role like a glove. In 20 years, I dare say people will be bragging that they got to see Florez in Tonio, the same way they brag that they got to see Pavarotti in Elisir or Sutherland in Lucia.

Natalie Dessay's vocal brilliance once matched Florez's -- she was a famous Olympia, Lakme, Ophelia, Queen of the Night, and Zerbinetta (which I saw -- unforgettable). Now, after several surgeries on her nodes, her voice is considerably smaller-scaled and her top no longer always obedient (in her heyday she used to throw high G's into the Doll Song). To compensate, she engages in some frenetic stage business that some found hammy and others cute. I don't mind it, I like the Chaplinesque acting, and her take on Marie as a tomboy. But nevertheless, I was dismayed at how small and shrill her voice can sound. Her voice always had a Gallic edge to it that allowed it to carry to the very back of a huge opera house like the Metropolitan. But now the edge is stronger, and her voice no longer has the easy agility. She's better in the quieter moments of the opera, but in arias like "Chacun le Sait, Chacun le Dit" I had the feeling from the screamed high notes that she was using up her vocal capital quite rapidly.

Laurent Pelly's staging sets the scene in the WW1 era. The stage business and exaggerated dialogue and stage directions opera makes it more operetta than opera, and again, some in the audience the night I saw it found it charming while others found it overdone. Marie in his vision is a real tomboy, dressed in military-like pants and suspenders when we first see her. It's obviously based on the formidable comic gifts of Dessay. Alessandro Corbelli is a real charmer as Sulpice Pingot, as is Felicity Palmer as Marquise de Berkenfield.

The question among opera dvd collectors is, "Which Florez Fille do I get?" Because there's another Florez Fille already on the market, starring Patricia Ciofi as Marie. I think vocally, that dvd is better. Ciofi's is at this point a more substantial instrument than Dessay's, with more color and agility. Florez encores "Ah mes amis" in that video. However, that production has none of the operetta-like charm of the Pelly production. It's a rather serious, even drab affair, and the comic bits of the piece don't work as well. Ciofi is less gifted at comedy than Dessay.

So my reommendation? Get both dvd's. You really can't go wrong with either, as each has qualities the other lacks, but what they both have in common is the Tonio of Juan Diego Florez in all its magnificent glory.

5 out of 5 stars

Best version April 30, 2008
8 out of 15 found this review helpful

I regard this version as superior to the one with Ciofi because Dessay is in fact a better singer than Ciofi. Florez needs no introduction since he is the reigning light lyric tenor today. Some complain that his voice has a "nasal" quality but in fact that is simply one of its unique identifying features. Most very great singers had uncommon voices, perhaps even ones with a few "defects", that served to make them unique. Callas for example, and Melchior. There are lots of voices with nothing distinctive about them, but Florez is not in that group, fortunately. No praise is too high for his art or his unique vocal instrument.

5 out of 5 stars

Amazing April 27, 2008
7 out of 14 found this review helpful

I just saw the Metropolitan HD live simulcast of La Fille du Regiment yesterday and simply can't get over Nathalie Dessay's performance. Her physical comedy is fabulous and what is truly astounding is how well she sings while being so physically active (non-stop) on stage. She was a joy to watch. Florez was also wonderful.

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