Donizetti : La Fille du Régiment

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) La Fille du régiment

Opéra-comique in two acts based on a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard, premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1840.

Performance in French with French and English surtitles

Running time: 2h40 including interval

Part One: 1h15

Interval

Part Two: 50 minutes

Garlanded with exceptional success, Donizetti presented his first opera created in French in Paris in 1840: La Fille du régiment. King Louis-Philippe had just reopened the doors of Versailles, deciding to create a museum there dedicated “to all the glories of France”. Napoleon was more honoured there than Louis XIV, and France was preparing to fervently welcome the return of the Emperor's ashes. Suffice to say, patriotism was in full swing, and La Fille du régiment was perfectly in tune with the times. To sing of the improbable loves between the vivandière Marie, who became the adopted daughter of the regiment, and the brave Tonio, who saved the young woman and joined the Napoleonic army, Donizetti gave free rein to his joy: patriotic arias and choruses, an assault of bel canto, and Tonio's famous aria, the “Everest of Lyric Art” with its nine high Cs! The thousandth performance was reached in 1914 in Paris. During the December 1940 performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Lily Pons, after a dazzling “Salut à la France”, sang La Marseillaise, which became a symbol of freedom in the midst of war. The virtuoso soloists Catherine Trottmann and Patrick Kabongo, accompanied by the Chœur de l'Armée française, will transport the audience of the Opéra Royal to the beating heart of the homeland!