Product Details

• Actors: Joan Sutherland, Anson Austin, Heather Begg, Gregory Yurisich, Marie-Claire
• Directors: Peter Butler
• Writers: Jean-François-Alfred Bayard, Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges
• Format: Classical, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Kultur Video
• VHS Release Date: August 15, 1991
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301304969
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #335,151 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Hometown girl makes good as soprano Joan Sutherland struts her considerable stuff in this ramshackle but mostly delightful version of Donizetti's frantic comedy. Videotaped at a 1986 Australian Opera performance, the production tries a bit too much to imitate Gilbert & Sullivan in its broad comic strokes and overly frilly costumes, but this approach isn't totally alien to Donizetti's madcap plot and characters. Of course, the mettle of any Donizetti staging is tested by its lead actress, and Sutherland is in top bel canto form as the heroine, Marie, easily handling the composer's difficult vocal writing and receiving a highly partisan but justly earned ovation. Richard Bonynge, conducting the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra, and the Australian Opera Chorus also contribute greatly to the generally upbeat atmosphere. --Kevin Filipski

From the Back Cover

The Daughter of the Regiment seems to burst over with Gallic wit and charm. It tells a tale of young love--frustrated, then victorious--and gave the composer Donizetti ample chances to write military rhythms, pastoral mood music, and passionate love exchanges, as well as to create a role that any prima donna would fight to perform. The story centers on the waif Marie, who is adopted by a French army regiment, falls in love with a Tyrolean youth called Tonio, but is carried off to live with the Marquise of Berkenfeld, who plans to turn her into a genteel lady and marry her to an aristocrat. But at the final curtain, the Marquise (who turns out to be her long-lost mother) relents and lets her marry Tonio.

This Australian Opera production was praised as such: "Dame Joan Sutherland has made the cute heroine Marie as much her own as the tragic Lucia. Sutherland tossed off the soprano's florid runs and trills like a lark ascending while romping around the stage with the tongue-in-cheek nonchalance of a born comedian. The supporting cast was splendid both vocally and histrionically." --The Australian. "The Daughter of the Regiment is purely opera as entertainment. However, it does demand exceptionally fine singing. On both counts, for vocal splendor and for entertainment, it succeeds admirably." --Canberra Times

Cast:

Joan Sutherland: Marie
Anson Austin: Tonio
Heather Begg: Marquesa
Gregory Yurisich: Sulpice
Gordon Wlcocs: Hortensio
Marie-Claire: Duquesa

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sutherland an absolute delight as Marie!, June 8, 2004

By 

Mike Leone (Houston, TX, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gaetano Donizetti: La Fille du Regiment - Opera Australia (DVD)

This live performance of La fille du régiment was made roughly 15 years after Sutherland's celebrated commercial recording of the opera with Pavarotti. She was just short of 60 years old at the time of this performance and was at the time enjoying a sort of renaissance of renewed strength and vigor in her voice. I saw her in four performances of Anna Bolena in Houston just two months prior to this Fille, and in a challenging concert in Dallas about six months after, and noted that she sounded magnificent each time I saw her. Here, she is in good representative form for the period.

Even though Sutherland was best known for the many heroines, most of them loony, that she portrayed in the serious operas of the bel canto era, her true métier was comedy. Her sense of timing was flawless. At Marie's entrance Sutherland appears to do several drum rolls and then one time the offstage drummer does a roll that she "accidentally" fails to follow, with a delightful reaction on her part; she returns to this joke once more during her entrance aria that follows. The second act includes a long comic tour de force as Sutherland, playing a canteen girl brought against her will into high society, is forced to rehearse a rather long-winded and stuffy song her "aunt" (actually her mother trying to cover up Marie's illegitimate birth) wants her to perform. For me the highlight of her visual performance involves one of the oldest gags in the book, a scene where she follows her aunt around mimicking her gestures; each time the poor aunt turns around Marie adopts a pose facing the audience that belies the fact that she has been making fun of her. She is so natural and so delightful in this scene that she had me rolling on the floor with laughter.

But what about vocally? you ask. How does she measure up? Well, I'll start with the bad stuff, what little of it there is: Sutherland simplifies the music only very slightly from her celebrated recording from 15 years earlier (a high note omitted here, a long note cut short there), and her imitation of a bugle call near the beginning of the opera contains a few (and I mean few) notes that are a bit flat, a flaw she corrects by the end of that call. Other than that, she is in very good voice, with even the famous Sutherland trill still very much in place. Perhaps I might be expected to say at this point that "she is in very good voice for an almost-60-year-old woman," and as it turns out no apologies are necessary. Sopranos half her age might well have cause to be envious. We were very fortunate to have Sutherland for as long as we did; when will her like come along again? And while it is true that most of the men in the chorus who played her many loving regimental "fathers" do appear to be half Sutherland's age or younger, this was probably less evident in actual performance than on television. Still the television director, not wanting to push his luck, uses few true close-ups. Bottom line is that the audience truly loves her, and who can blame them?

The rest of the cast does not let the side down either. Veteran Heather Begg, looking and sounding older than she probably actually was (check her out in the Adriana Lecouvreur video made two years later to get a better idea of her actual age), is appropriately snooty and stuffy. She also shows herself to be a good comic actress as well, particularly in the aforementioned rehearsal scene. Anson Austin, Sutherland's partner in a number of these Australian videos, sings well enough. He does sound a bit raw in a few of the nine high C's in his big aria, although he recovers in time to do a good and long-held final one. Gregory Yurisich as Sergeant Sulpice is nowhere near as crusty as I might expect an old sergeant to be; still he was fun to watch and very much into the piece. Richard Bonynge's conducting is buoyant and very supportive of the singers.

Production values could have been a bit better. All we get is the opera with no special features. Picture and sound are good, although it would have been nice to at least be able to turn the subtitles on and off, something that is possibly not Kultur's fault. Anyway, the lack of special features is the only reason I gave the DVD four stars instead of five.

This is easily the best of the Sutherland videos that I have seen, even if I still regret that nobody took the time to videotape her Semiramide or Esclarmonde. Highly recommended for those who want to spend a couple of hours enjoying one of the more fun comic operas, and even more highly recommended for Sutherland fans.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's good, but, June 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Gaetano Donizetti: La Fille du Regiment - Opera Australia (DVD)

Sutherland is good here. But she is spectacular in the DVD "The Complete Bell Telephone Hour Performances 1961-1968, and the VHS "Age of Bel Canto". These two are Joan Sutherland's most accomplished performances and among the most mind bogglingly awesome recordings available today.
In this Daugher of the regiment, she is way past her prime. If you like the opera, buy the Sutherland/Pavarotti cd or cassette instead.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars below Sutherland's best, August 14, 2000

By 

alana (Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Donizetti - The Daughter of the Regiment / Bonynge, Sutherland, Australian Opera [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you want to hear and see what Joan Sutherland was really about, don't buy this one, she sounds old and tired. She was close to 60. If you want to hear why La stupenda caused such a sensation during her operatic reign as the Queen of bel canto, I would recommend the following VHS tapes.

The "Voice of Firestone" The "Bell Telephone Hour" The "Age of bel canto"