Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment aims to please and it succeeds, with its catchy tunes, wildly difficult showpieces for the principles, and a simple, if also simplistic, narrative line. This 2005 live performance at Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice features virtuoso singing by tenor Juan Diego Flórez as Tonio and soprano Patrizia Ciofi, as Marie, the 'daughter' of the soldiers who have adopted her. Tonio's big Act I scene and aria, 'Ah! mes amis,' was a famous showpiece for Pavarotti and Flórez is in that league, nailing the aria's nine high Cs with an ease mere mortals reserve just for breathing. This is knock-'em-dead singing and the audience demands (and gets) an encore. Ciofi's Marie is well acted and sung with lyric beauty and coloratura fireworks. The chief supporting roles are done to a turn. Bass Nicola Ulivieri is a firm-voiced Sulpice, the sergeant who helps the lovers, while Francesca Franci is a wonderful Marquise, displaying subtle comic acting and a rich mezzo as Marie's 'aunt' who has grand plans for her future. Conductor Riccardo Frizza leads the Genoa forces with stylish zest.

Stage director Emilio Sagi, has moved the action from Napoleonic times to a French village in the closing days of World War II, replacing the French regiment with victorious Yanks, which makes for some textual anomalies but none that impede enjoyment. This video version offers functional direction but it's often unflattering to the singers (especially Marie who's sometimes shot from above in lighting that shadows part of her face), and uses excessive close-ups and cuts to reaction shots that distract from the main events. Still, a don't-miss buffo opera brilliantly sung. --Dan Davis









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Rating: - * Mes Amis: a recommendation for you ... Juan Diego Florez is reason enough to give this recording a 5 star rating! However, the entire production is a major delight and one you will want to hear over and over again. And then I keep recalling "Mes Amis"--vocal pyrotechnics of the highest order...Hmmmm--I think I will go now to play it yet again! Rating: - * An outstanding and interesting performance of this comique opera ... This is an outstanding performance of the "Daughter of the Regiment", a comedy-opera by Donizetti. Juan Diego Florez excels in his performance of Tonio, introducing his own interpretation of the role. In addition Patrizia Ciofi excels in using her voice and stage play. All in all this is an excellent performance. The conversion of the story to more modern times of WWII introduces a bit of contemporary feeling. Rating: - * Le Chien du Regiment ... Do yourself a favor and pass this one by. "Light" tenor Juan Diego Florez is better heard than seen, and he is seen a whole lot from the start, looking more like my dentist than he does like a heart throb and hero. And his acting is -- to put it kindly -- shameful: TOTALLY unbelievable, even by the flimsy standards of bel canto opera; indeed, he comes across transparently as gay. Patrizia Ciofi is a snaggle-toothed gamine and grotesque in a number of ways, grimacing unpleasantly through her famous early arias. And to make matters worse, she is forced by her director (or someone else's tawdry judgment) to romp about the stage in the smartly-saluting, wise-cracking fashion of old-time Broadway musicals. The mostly Italian cast has a great deal of trouble with the libretto's spoken French, and their troubles are exacerbated by a lot more spoken dialogue than you're accustomed to hearing in opera. The staging is a failure as well. The French invading Italy during World War II? Why not have the Dutch invade Morocco, wearing snow-shoes? The transposition makes no sense and the expectations it unleashes -- of hard-bitten, battle-weary GIs (or their French counterparts, if there'd been any) -- make a hash of the story's whole premise... unless you kindly choose to see this as a light-opera spin-off of the Phil Silvers Show. I didn't. And these guys wouldn't have adopted an orphan... period. A dog, maybe -- and that's what this production, sadly, is. Rating: - * Dont tamper with classic presentations ... I love Italian opera in traditional presentation. I returned this unopened as when I saw modern dress n the cover which I did not notice on the order page, and I knew it was not for me. I have seen "il Barbiere di Seviglia" in San Fran where he enters riding an electric vespa; also there I saw "i vespri siciliani" in 18cent Sicily (the story is Sicilian revenge against French invaders who violated a maiden in 13 century) and they were not there in 18c so historical perspective is lost and the animus they harbor for the French was not present); and "Don Giovanni" in Paris Feb 07 which is set in a modern office building-when the don sing 'da vieni a la finestra'- there is no window to be seen, as it is supposed to be a serenade to the donna at a window. I laughed my way thru my abosolutely favorite opera it hurt so much. In short, I hate productions which take such liberties. Just get a DVD with the Sutherland and Pavarotti performance from 1960s, where he made his mark as king of high C's, and I'll buy it!! Rating: - * Unfortunate ! ... As a 'comedy' presentation, this DVD is not funny - its slapstick! Juan Diego Flórez and Patrizia Ciofi dont command the stage with their physical presence and movement although they sing their hearts out. I would have been better served without the dismal staging and at the next hearing, will look to take in the glorious singing without the visuals. There are too many interruptions with a raucous audience. Without proper choreography, the American soldiers clutter the stage and no purpose is served by having so many on so small a stage (and, what purpose is served by changing the 1815 French into 1945 Americans?). The sound is good and one feels the presence of the surround.