Product Details

• Actors: Beverly Sills, William McDonald, Spiro Malas, Muriel Costa-Greenspon, Raeder Anderson
• Directors: Kirk Browning
• Writers: Jean-François-Alfred Bayard, Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, Ruth Martin, Thomas Martin
• Format: Classical, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Video Artists Int'l
• VHS Release Date: March 30, 1999
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302487269
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,570 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This Daughter of the Regiment is a great memento of Beverly Sills in one of her best roles. She once described her part in Donizetti's screwball comedy as "Lucille Ball with high notes." In this enjoyable 1974 performance, that's how she plays the unsophisticated orphan girl adopted by a regiment of Napoleon's army, smitten with a peasant lad, and unwillingly betrothed to a decadent duke. Her larger-than-life presence is supported by a musically and comically capable cast, oriented toward broad comic effects, with results something like a high-grade sitcom.

Donizetti originally wrote the opera to a French libretto and later adapted it in Italian. Sung in English, it often sounds a bit like Gilbert and Sullivan. The music is both witty and spectacular, with plenty of high-note acrobatics (which Sills and William McDonald negotiate gracefully) and slapstick interactions for Spiro Malas as the gruff Sergeant Sulpice and Muriel Costa-Greenspon as the socially pretentious Marquise. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, I thought, May 15, 2004

By 

Joseph Hart (Visalia, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Donizetti - The Daughter of the Regiment / Wendelken-Wilson, Sills, McDonald, Wolf Trap (DVD)

This is sung in English, as you must know by now. I preferred it that way. For some reason, it made me conscious of tunes I simply had never noticed before. It was a relief to be free to watch the performers instead of having to keep my eyes fixed on the subtitles. The lyics (is "lyrics" low-brow, common? Ha!) were good I thought, no Larry Hart, but the rhymes were true and they got the story across. One thing, though, the writers might learn the difference between "lay" and "lie." Sills was perfectly uncouth, and when she let fly with a few "hells" and "damns" (god bless her!) she endeared herself to me for forever, as though she wasn't already. Her voice was its usual technical miracle with its beautiful sound. The soldiers were all smiles, the cast did a wonderful job. This is far from my favorite Donizetti opera (though I find something to like in all of them), but it was good fun, funny and beautifully sung. The sound and picture quality (once I put my glasses on) were both fine. One last note. (I'm urethral, there always is one.) Several reviewers have said Sills was over the hill when she sang this. I didn't think so at all. And one reviewer objected to the conductor's head being visible a few times. It was. So what?

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars They've done it again!!! Alas..., May 17, 2002

By 

Wildfire "quattro-media" (UK) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Donizetti - The Daughter of the Regiment / Wendelken-Wilson, Sills, McDonald, Wolf Trap (DVD)

Once more this group has published a marvellous showcase for Beverly Sills. As usual she bewitches with her commensurate artistry, her technical skill, her warmth and her ability to impart magic on the drama and humour required of this role.
Be warned, however:
1. It is sung in English. This removes the distraction of subtitles though it was strange at first hearing it performed in English!
2. The sound is poor. It allows the words to come through clearly enough (most times) but somewhere in the chain it was recorded at too low a level. Turn the volume right up and the underlying noise becomes apparent, obtrusive in quieter orchestral or recitative passages.
As a production it is competent and imaginative if a little lacklustre at times - one has to doubt that it would have made the international stage. Given its vintage, however, (1974) it is a document worthy of any operatic collection and certainly Ms Sills' fans will snap it up.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, Opera As Comedy (If Only It Could Be Revived), March 24, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Donizetti - The Daughter of the Regiment / Wendelken-Wilson, Sills, McDonald, Wolf Trap (DVD)

Donizetti: The Daughter Of The Regiment (La Fille Du Regiment)
Beverly Sills (soprano) as Marie.... William McDonald (tenor) as Tonio... Spiro Malas (Baritone) Sulpice Muriel Costa-Greenspon (mezzo-soprano) La Marquise and Raeder Anderson: The Corporal
Ben Stevenson: Dancing Master Evelyn Freyman: Duchess of Crakentorp David Wylie: The Notary Stanley Wexler: Hortensius
With The Filene Center Orchestra & the Wolf Trap Company Chorus, Charles Wendelken-Wilson, conductor
Stage director: Lotfi Mansouri
Directed for television by Kirk Browning Summer 1974

This is one of three taped performances from the Wolf Trap Center in rural Virginia (a center for the performing arts which still stands today) that presented Beverly Sills, in the 70's period of her career (the last decade of her career) as Violetta in Verdi's Traviata, and Queen Elisabeth I in Donizetti's Roberto Devereaux. Here, she is the feisty, charming Marie, the Daughter of the Regiment. Beverly Sills is in phenomenal voice, the high register is glorious and she maintains all her brilliant bel canto abilities, including pianissimi, which she had always been famous for and her comic acting abilities are outstanding. In the Interview Feature with the producer, she tells us that she approached the role with a "Lucille Ball" element and she generally has fun in this role. But it is not an easy role to sing. It is still bel canto, full of militant coloratura trills and roulades, and a lot of singing time on stage. But besides her beautiful singing, Beverly can make you laugh and she has a Broadway-style theatrical style. If you're a fan of Beverly Sills, who, now nearly 80, is still an active force in the cause of and administration of opera in New York City, and who enjoyed immense success as one of the few first true American opera singers, this one's for you.

Tenor William McDonald is clearly no Pavarotti, but he has the right voice for the role of Tonio, which calls for a high, lyric bel canto tenor voice. At one point, he must hight successive high C's and McDonald can do this without faltering. Although I don't find anything wrong with his singing, he tends to approach the role as one of those bland, weak, "Don Ottavio/puppy dog boyfriend" type lovers. He is not heroic or manly the way Pavarotti was. But this is only a minor quibble. He sings well with Sills. Spiro Malas, the baritone as Sulpice, had already enjoyed great success as Sulpice opposite Joan Sutherland's Marie in recording and stage. He is a true basso-buffo and he pulls out all the stops for his comic bit. Muriel Costa-Greespoon is another hilarious singer-comedienne and as the Marquise she is a riot. Production values are'nt great for this performance. The set looks like it was painted by children and rather than providing a naturalistic ambiance, looks more like we are watching a Disney cartoon. Also, the costumes are far too colorful and kitschy and further makes it look like the singers are singing a Disney musical. Spiro Malas' Sulpice, in particular, looks like a friendly Disney sea captain. But even this doesn't detract from the overall comedy and hilarity of this performance. Because it's in English, there is no need for pesky subtitles and none of Donizetti's original melodies have been altered considerably. Too many, Joan Sutherland was the reigning "Daughter of the Regiment", for she was highly publicized in Met performances with Pavarotti, but when you look at this performance, you will understand why Beverly Sills took the role with a lot more than just her career in mind. She LOVED TO ENTERTAIN PEOPLE, she loved to sing opera, she had a fun time with this role and she makes one feel differently about opera. None of the misconceptions about it are true here - this is not boring or stuffy, this is making fun of boring and stuffy opera itself with an amusing tale about a tomboy girl and her true love.