In 1832, after constant frustration from the censors in Naples
who demanded happy endings, Donizetti cancelled his contract and
left the city. Two years later he returned as musical director
of the Royal Theatres, a position once held by Rossini. Like his
renowned predecessor he was required to write opera seria for
the San Carlo each year. The first of these was to have been Maria
Stuarda, but the censors interfered, yet again objecting to
the tragic ending. In little more than two weeks Donizetti rearranged
the music to a new libretto, Buondelmonte. Needless to
say it was only a moderate success. During a trip to Paris at
Rossini’s invitation he presented Marino Faliero at the
Théâtre Italien. Following on after Bellini’s I Puritani
it made few waves. Donizetti however, had seen the higher musical
standards and experienced the better remuneration available in
Paris and planned to return. Back in Naples he presented Lucia
di Lamermoor. It was rapturously received. With the premature
death of Bellini in the same year, and Rossini no longer composing
opera, Donizetti could claim pre-eminence among Italian opera
composers. He fulfilled his contract at the San Carlo with L’assedio
di Calais in 1836, Roberto Devereux (see review)
the following year and wrote Poliuto for 1838. This story
of Christian martyrdom in Roman times worried the censors. With
the work complete Donizetti was told that the King, a deeply religious
man, had personally forbidden its staging in Naples and Pia
de’ Tolomei (see Reviews on CD
and DVD)
was substituted in its place.
The banning of Poliuto
was the final straw for Donizetti who left Naples for Paris
in October 1838. Once there he agreed to write two operas in
French. For the first he turned to Poliuto and engaged
Eugène Scribe to produce a French text based on Cammarano’s
original Italian libretto. For the revised Poliuto he
rewrote the recitatives, divided act one into two, added arias,
trios and the de rigueur ballet as well as a new finale.
The new four-act opera was premiered as Les Martyrs (see
review)
at The Opéra on 10 March 1839. Whilst awaiting the ever dilatory
Scribe to complete the new libretto, Donizetti presented a French
version of Lucia as Lucie de Lamermoor (see review)
and wrote La Fille du regiment, premiered at the Opéra
Comique on 11 February 1840.
The style of La
Fille du régiment is distinctly different from L’elisir
d’amore and Don Pasquale, Donizetti’s earlier Italian
comic operas. It is not only a question of the French language
or the extensive use of spoken dialogue as was the tradition
at the Paris Opéra Comique, but also to some extent the musical
idiom itself with Donizetti bending over backwards to relate
to his French audience. Take it further, particularly in a performance
and production such as this, and the name of Offenbach and his
musical genre of thirty years later springs readily to mind.
The dialogue is used to introduce characters as in the case
of La Marquise de Berkenfeld and Hortensius at the start of
act one whilst also permitting the participants, particularly
any non-singing role such as the La Duchesse de Crakentrop,
to raise some laughter with topical jokes. In this production
the period is updated to the early twentieth century. The Tyrolean
location is represented on the act one set by a two and three-dimensional
outline map of the Alps as a backdrop and on the stage and around
which the chorus of fearful peasants move. The demeanour of
the populace, their headgear and stacked furniture, represent
the reality of the war around them.
The story concerns
Marie, a believed orphan, who has been adopted by a regiment
of soldiers fighting in the Swiss Tyrol during the Napoleonic
wars. Now grown up she is the mascot and vivandière of the regiment
whom she refers to as her collective fathers, with sergeant
Sulpice her principal father. Marie has been seeing a local
Tyrolean man who had saved her life. The two are in love, but
Marie can only marry a member of the regiment so the young man,
Tonio, joins up. He does so just as Sulpice discovers a connection
with the stranded Marquise de Berkenfeld who takes Marie back
to her home on the basis of being her long lost niece.
In this production
by Laurent Pelly, updated to the early nineteen hundreds, Natalie
Dessay portrays Marie as a gamine, red-haired tomboy and something
of a skivvy for the soldiers. She appears in dungarees and braces
pulling a line of soldier’s Long-Johns. She carries their laundry
and irons their clothes whilst at the same time accurately singing
stratospheric coloratura with her light flexible soprano, a
feat she achieves with vocal aplomb and distinction alongside
uniquely animated acting.
Compared to Donizetti’s
L’elisir d’amore, Lucia di Lammermoor and Don
Pasquale there are fewer well-known numbers. That said, Tonio’s
aria Ah! mes amis, near the end of the first act, the one
with the nine high Cs, eight written and one at the end interpolated
by any tenor capable, will be instantly recognised. It was made
famous by Pavarotti who recorded the role of Tonio alongside Joan
Sutherland at the beginning of his career after performances at
Covent Garden (Decca 4145212). In reality there are many other
recognisable moments, not least Tonio’s act two Ecoutez moi
as he pleads his cause to La Marquise ending with a high B. Juan
Diego Florez is the man of our time in this music, this being
his third recording as Tonio. He does not have Pavarotti’s open-throated
Italianate tone, his voice being smaller and more tightly focused.
He can and does ping out those demanding high notes with ease
and expression as well as looking and acting the part of the lovelorn
young man. As well as the demanding coloratura Marie has moments
of poignancy particularly in her duets with Sulpice, superbly
sung and acted by the vastly experienced buffa Alessandro Corbeli.
In the second act,
set in the drawing room of the Marquise de Berkenfeld’s house,
Marie is being trained, La Marquise hopes, in the manners of
a lady. She is dressed in an elegant frock and having singing
lessons with Sulpice at the piano. Every so often nurture will
out and the pair interpose the regimental Rataplan, at
least until La Marquise, who has made arrangements for Marie
to marry an aristocrat, notices. The mother of the aristocrat
is a spoken part taken at Covent Garden by the over-ample Dawn
French, a comedienne of British TV fame. In this production
the dialogue has been both cut and amended from the original.
Dawn French makes somewhat excessive opportunity to ham it up
with recourse to English on occasion. This could become tiresome
on repeated watching, as it tends to move what is an opera beyond
even operetta towards vaudeville or even slapstick. Although
Tonio arrives to rescue Marie, I will not spoil it by telling
you how, she agrees to the arranged marriage when she is told
that the Marquise is in fact her mother. Her mother in turn
succumbs to Tonio’s recounted story in Ecoutez moi, relents
and agrees to Marie’s marriage to him. In this second act in
particular, Felicity Palmer reveals formidable strengths as
a singing actress whilst Donald Maxwell uses his India rubber
face to excessive effect as Hortensius her servant. The whole
is kept fizzing along by Bruno Campanella on the rostrum whilst
the video director follows the action without too much interference
or camera gimmickry.
This entertaining
and idiosyncratic production was shared with Vienna and the
New York Met where the singing cast was the same as at Covent
Garden. As a show, and that is the best description, it is built
around the duo of Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez, particularly
the former. I cannot imagine any other soprano interpreting
Marie in this production with the vocal agility and physical
involvement Dessay brings to the role. She is an outstanding
singing actress. How many roles in the repertoire are suitable
for her histrionic skill I do not know, but they need to be
recorded whilst she is in this kind of vocal and all action
form.
Throughout this
review I have not, as would be my usual habit, cross-referenced
my comments to the appropriate Chapters on the DVD. These are
not listed in the very sparse, inadequate, accompanying leaflet.
I know this issue is available at lower price but it surely
costs little to give such information rather than coloured photographs
of the production on the four sides of the leaflet. Donizetti,
the cast and this production deserve better.
Robert J Farr
Marie, a supposed
orphan adopted by the regiment - Natalie Dessay (soprano); Tonio,
a young Tyrolean in love with Marie – Juan Diego Florez (tenor);
Sulpice, a sergeant of the regiment and senior father of Marie -
Alessandro Corbeli (buffa bass); La Marquise de Berkenfeld - Felicity
Palmer (mezzo); Hortensius, major-domo of the Marquise – Donald
Maxwell (bass); La Duchesse de Crakentrop - Dawn French (comedienne);
Un Caporal - Bryan Secombe; Un paysan - Luke Price; Un notaire -
Jean-Pierre Blanchard 
[132:00] 
