This frothy comedy mixes humour with a rush of buoyant melody and notorious vocal challenges.
Pretty Yende as Marie Photo: Marty Sohl/The Metropolitan Opera
DONIZETTI: La fille du régiment
Cast:
Pretty Yende (Marie), Javier Camarena (Tonio), Stephanie Blythe (Marquise of Berkenfield), Maurizio Muraro (Sgt Sulpice), Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra/Enrique Mazzola
The story concerns a young orphan girl raised by an army regiment as their mascot and begins at the moment of her first stirrings of love. Complications (and comedy) ensue when her true identity is discovered.
Pretty Yende as Marie Photo: Marty Sohl/The Metropolitan Opera
The action is startlingly simple and unencumbered by intricate subplots, allowing the full charm of the characters and their virtuosic music to come across in an uninhibited way.
Pretty Yende as Marie and Javier Camarena as Tonio Photo: Marty Sohl/The Metropolitan Opera
Bergamo-born Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) composed about 75 operas, plus orchestral and chamber music, in a career abbreviated by mental illness and premature death.
Apart from the ever-popular Lucia di Lammermoor and the comic gems L’Elisir d’Amore and Don Pasquale, most of his works disappeared from public view after his death. But critical and popular opinion of his work has grown considerably over the past 50 years.
