Customer Reviews

Donizetti: La fille du Regiment

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've owned the disc version of this performance on a pirated recording since a few months after the actual performance date (1969), and for me it's always been the epitome of what made any Sills role exciting--stunning coloratura, beautiful legato, and humor. Here her singing is much more exciting than on the VHS tape of a production in English, and her French is exquisite. Corena is a classic Sulpice, Hirst sings all of the high C's without strain, and Greenspon hams it to the hilt. A very minor drawback is the low-tech but pefectly listenable sound, without which this wonderful souvenir of Sills in her prime would not exist.

This CD has probably the most perfect interpretation of Marie ever. Perfection is the only word that can be used for Beverly Sills' performance of this charming Donizetti opéra-comique. The soprano is during the whole performance in perfect command of her voice. Her coloratura is simply spectacular: perfects scales, a contant display of tight trills and luminous high notes. Also her command of legato singing is admirable in slow arias like "Il faut partir" and "Par le rang et par l'opulance. Her ornamentation is daring and virtousistic, always connected with the music and style. Besides all this, there is the marvel of hearing a complete involvement with the character and a great command of the French language. All this skill is displayed over all the opera, but the great highlight of Sills' greatness is the singing lesson on Act 2. Here the soprano displays her great sense of fun united to incredible scales, trills and brilliant high notes, ending the scene with a dazzling high E. A true display of belcanto singing. But Ms. Sills is not alone in bringing delight: her supporting cast, even when not as brilliant, is very good in both vocalism and comic timing. Grayson Hirst as Tonio displays easy high C's in "Ah mes amis" and interacts charmingly with Sills. Fernando Corena and Corena Muriel Greenspon are simply irresistible as Sulpice and La Marquise. Roland Gagnon conducts with verve and skill the orchestra and the excellent chorus of the American Opera Society, apart from being the creative force behind Sill's virtousistic variations. The fact that this is a live performance makes it even more commendable. This CD is a glorious testament of what great operatic singing is about.

Source: 1969 live performance before an audience of hacking coughers in serious need of medication.

Sound: Overall sound is really not bad. Sills is generally well-captured. Other singers from time to time wander away from the microphones (one of which must have been directly over the piano) and suffer noticeable changes in volume. All coughs, premature applause and exasperating bravi are reproduced in tip-top fidelity.

Documentation: Opera D'Oro's documentation is as deplorable as ever. No libretto. No description of track contents except for a few initial words. No comments on the singers or the production. There is a short and not very helpful summary of the plot.

Sills sounds to me to be in very good voice. Her high notes are very much in place and her vocal agility in the more than usually ornamented passages is impressive. She displays more than enough brilliance, playfullness, drive and presence to show why she was a real star. Her French sounds as convincing to me as that of any non-native speaker and it does not clash with that of Corena, born a French-speaking Swiss. Purely as a matter of personal taste, I would prefer a slightly warmer voice and a less ornamented line, but I can certainly understand and even endorse the raves given to her by fans writing some of the previous Amazon reviews.

Fernando Corena is very good, and quite at home with the role of the rascally / fatherly Sergeant Sulpice, although I think his voice is a bit thinner than it would have been a few years earlier. Muriel Greenspoon is effective in the sometimes thankless role of the Marquise.

Grayson Hirst as Tonio is the hardest of the four principals to assess. I gather that this is his only significant, commercially-distributed recording. From this one performance in this one opera it seems to me that his voice was pleasant, clear, agile, full of nice top notes and of no great size. Taking the part of Tonio as a demonstration of singing, I have no significant criticism of Mr. Hirst. Taking Tonio as a character in a (comic) drama, I have serious reservations. It is my impression that Mr. Hirst, the singer, has placed himself at one step away from Tonio, the character. While his every note is carefully sculpted and artfully turned to produce a sweetness of tone, nowhere does Mr. Hirst just get on with it and give us the love-sick loon who joins the army to get the girl. Very likely time and experience would have wiped away this objection but, as here recorded, Mr. Hirst gives us a concert while everyone else is offering a performance.

The conducting is appropriately brisk and intelligent. The orchestra sounds fine when not being drowned out by the on-lookers.

On the whole, this is a fine performance--despite small reservations about the tenor--only partially spoiled by an obnoxious audience: four stars.

Simply a fabulous recording. Sills is wonderful with the rest of the cast nearly at her level. The sound quality is excellent for a live performance of its age (late 60's). Much better than on a private issue I've had for some years. A great way to expose yourself to the art of Beverly Sills - and at a price that can't be beat. Bravi!

In 1840, Gaetano Donizetti was commissioned to write a French opera for the Paris Opera-Comique. The rules for the Opera Comique was an opera of lyricism, spoken dialogue and highly entertaining comedy. Donizetti must have astounded audiences both in his native Italy and in Paris because he was able to write such a remarkable work of comedy. Normally, Donizetti produced tragic operas chalk-full of intense drama (Roberto Devereux, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, Lucia Di Lammermoor to name a few). La Fille Du Regiment (The Daughter of The Regiment) is a musically glittering opera with scenes that will make you laught your head off. It ranks in equality with Rossini's famous comedy The Barber Of Seville. The comic 2 act opera tells the tale of Marie, an abandoned child brought up by a regiment in Napoleon's army, which at the time of this opera, is stationed in the Swiss Tyrol. Marie is in love with Tonio, a native villager, who has saved her life. But Sulpice, the grumpy sargent, disapproves of their relationship. Marie must only marry a high-ranking soldier. The Marquise (a female consort of a Marquis) discovers Marie among the regiment and declares she is her niece. Thereafter, Marie is taken into custody of the Marquise in her castle. Marie is sad to leave her regiment and her beloved Tonio. This occurs in Act I.

This recoding is a live performance (complete with applause and laughter from the audience) from 1969. Baritone Franco Corena takes on the role of the grouchy Sulpice, coloratura soprano Beverly Sills is a riot as Marie, Grayson Hirst is the tenor who sings the role of Tonio and Muriel Greenspoon provides a comic La Marquise. From the moment Beverly Sills enters the stage (to a great applause) and belts out a coloratura roulade that imitates the French national anthem La Marsailles and a famous military march, the audience is taken by her hilarious performance. There are many fine moments in this opera. If you don't mind the live recording.

In Act 2, Marie is in La Marquise's castle where La Marquise is teaching her to play minuets on the piano. However, Sulpice lures her to play the Rataplan march and the Song of the Regiment. This scene is the most comical, and the audience laughs nearly non-stop. Muriel Greenspoon's interpretation of La Marquise comes off as exceedingly funny, as she is a living joke of a bourgeois woman, with a snobby French accent. The highlight in this scene is when Beverly Sills spins out spiraling coloratura as she plays the pinao to the egging of the others and finally manages to sound like a scream. Tonio has been made a soldier in Marie's Regiment. He is happy for this means he is finally going to marry Marie. He demonstrates his joy in the aria "Mes Amis" which culminates in high C's from the tenor. Grayson Hirst is a fine singer and his Tonio is lyric, romantic and interesting. At the end of the opera, Marie is almost forced to marry a nobleman whom she does'nt care anything about when Tonio and Marie are reunited and La Marquise finally discloses her secret- Marie is her daughter born out of wedlock and she blesses Marie and Tonio as a happy couple. This is the definate version of the opera. It is funny, it is full of brilliant music and a light story. The Song of the Regiment was even almost the French National Anthem. It is still played in concert (in the Overture) on Bastille Day July 14. Beverly Sills is in fine singing condition, since this is 1969 and her performance stands out as the best Marie. Look also for the DVD version of a Wolf Trap live performance, only it is sung in English. This is a must have for Donizetti fans and of course followers of Beverly Sills.

Donizetti was a prolific composer. Some would say he was the most dedicated opera composer and librettist of the early 19th century. He wrote more than 50 operas, some of which took him only weeks to get together. He was like the Mozart of bel canto opera. He could create operas of great dramatic intensity (Roberto Devereaux, Maria Stuarda) and operas of deep tragedy and melancholia (Lucia Di Lammermoor, Anna Bolena). He was like Shakespeare in that regard- as much a writer of tragedy as of comedy. His comedies, which were few but brilliant, include "Don Pasquale" for the Italian repertoire and the French opera "La Fille Du Regiment".

La Fille Du Regiment "The Daughter of the Regiment" was a hit in the Paris Opera where the French went crazy over the comic story. It was about an orphaned girl named Marie who is taken into custody by a regiment of Napoleon's army. Marie's guardian arranges for her to marry a wealthy but corrupt Duke. Marie is unwilling for she is in love with one of the soldiers- naturally, the idealistic romantic tenor. After much hilarious going-ons, slapstick humor and beautiful arias, duets and ensembles, Marie is married happily to her true love. The comedy is best enjoyed in the original French language Donizetti composed. There have been numerous revisions, including an Italian version known as "La Fillia Del Regimento", as well as English versions. None of these do the real opera justice. In Italian, it sounds stuffy and a lot like bel canto comedies of Rossini. Donizetti was a master in his own right and not an imitator of Rossini. In English, it just sounds like a Broadway musical or a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

The only reason you should get this recording is because it's the best version out there. It is in its entirety, in its original French, and includes a great cast of singers. Beverly Sills is fresh-voiced, a great comic actress and a beautiful singer. For the role of Marie, which Beverly sang in the late 60's, she recalls enjoying the role. On stage, she made audiences laugh in delight for with her costume and red hair, she looked like Lucile Ball or Little Orphan Annie. She was just as hilarious as well. Her arias are magnificent, her French perfect. The other singers are noteworthy as well, mainly Muriel Greenspoon and Franco Corena. Franco's tenor arias are robust, heroic and entertaining. The choruses are well-sung and of course, Donizetti's musical genius is clearly indicated in the score.

I truly mean it with all my heart (title of this review). I've heard a few Fille's, and this one, although it is a live budget recording, beats the other recordings, hands down. Beverly Sills is completely astounding in this comic role! Her coloratura is pure perfection, and she sings mind-boggling scales, trills, high notes (and there are a lot of them-sizzling high D's and E's abound) and runs like you've never heard before. I gotta say that she's got the best fioritura in the world at the time (not even Sutherland can compare; she'll have to pay homage to Sills's greatness. In addition Sutherland's recording of Fille is way too boring after hearing this one). The speed at which Beverly sings all this difficult coloratura vocal writing is absolutely amazing. Also it was great that Roland Gagnon, the conductor of this performance (and coach of Beverly Sills, besides her other great teacher Estelle Liebling), added embellishments and ornamentations to further show off Beverly's supreme coloratura skills. All this contributes to the humor and fun of the story. And of course, Beverly, renowned for being a superb actress, was very, very funny in this role (the audience erupts into laughter many times throughout the performance). Although the entire performance is top notch, the highlight is the lesson scene. Here's where Beverly shines the brightest. We hear breathtakingly FAST runs, stunning high notes, and comic timing that is unbeatable. Beverly is completely the bumbling soldier girl trying to learn to be ladylike and charming. And although we don't see it, we really can hear it in the performance (and as a saying goes, an excellent recording will help you feel like you're actually there, watching it all). I so wish that this exact performance was taped and released today on DVD, it would be a great pleasure to see.

The highest praises go to Beverly Sills, but the others do an excellent job too. Grayson Hirst, who sings Tonio, is a great tenor with an extremely lyrical and agile voice, very similar to that of Juan Diego Florez of today. In the famous "Ah, mes ami" he hits all his high C's with ease. He was a great partner to Beverly's Marie. There is also Fernando Corena, whose renowned sensitivity to comedy made for a delightfully funny Sulpice. The same can be said of Muriel Greenspon in the part of the Marquise. She and Beverly made the lesson scene unbelievably hilarious.

This really will be the most perfect portrayal of Marie you will ever hear. And for a live recording, the sound is actually pretty good. Grab a libretto with translation, snuggle up in your favorite chair, and get totally carried away in this outstanding performance!

I saw this opera last night in San Francisco (where I now live--I hope Amazon reads this) and the performance was stunning. Diana Damrau, in particular, is a magnificent singer and actor. I'm eager to see how she stacks up against Nathalie Dessay, who starred in the same production, earlier, at Covent Garden. The DVD of Dessay's performance is considered a must-buy and can be ordered from Amazon. I can attest, from seeing the production last night, that the stage direction and all the visuals are first-rate. In order to enjoy the spectacle as often as I please, I'll be getting the DVD.

To take the measure of the singing and playing in San Francisco, I put on this old Sills recording, from a live performance in New York 40 years ago. The sound is really not bad at all; if you're used to "historic" recordings, or even if you're not, the sound is quite agreeable. All you need, in order to enjoy this, is to know in advance that it's not modern digital or stereo; it's a good mono signal that measures well against other live recordings of the period.

Interpretation-wise, it's a nonpareil. This is the kind of role for which Beverly Sills was made (something that cannot be said about Callas or Sutherland). And in 1969 Sills's voice was at its loveliest. The rest of the cast matches her level, as do the chorus and orchestra.

For the spectacle, get the Dessay DVD. Gaetano Donizetti - La Fille du regiment / Dessay, Florez, Palmer, Corbelli, French, Campanella, Pelly (Royal Opera House 2007)For the music, get Beverly Sills. If you buy them both from Amazon, it's about $30 with shipping.

Beverly Sills' voice, in my opinion, is at its best in this opera - humor and joyful emotions shared via incredible coloratura gymnastics!

I'll allow the recording to speak for itself, as it is a document of the most difficult version of Fille ever performed. There are numerous embellishments added by Roland Gagnon, 2nd voice coach of Beverly's, and they show off her coloratura extremely well. There are added trills, runs, and lots (LOTS) of added high notes above high C. She is in the best voice, like in the Julius Caesar recording. High E's are full, juicy, and ringing, very much comparable to Sutherland's! Hear it with unbiased ears to see that this Daughter stands above the rest.