La Fille Du Regiment

What if they gave an opera and only half of the cast showed up?

Last night's performance of Donizetti's La Fille Du Regiment was marked by the absence of its two lead singers due to illness. Neither Diana Damrau nor Juan Diego Florez appeared. This was a disappointment for me because the prospect of this combination had motivated me to get tickets for this opera which I had recently seen in a performance with Natalie Dessay. I knew something was up because the doors were closed until about five minutes prior to the scheduled performance time. I opened my program with trepidation as I saw that little telltale piece of paper slipped in between its pages. I was prepared for one missing singer, but not an epidemic. The show did go on with what was in my opinion mixed results.

First, a word about the plot. The plot is girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy at the end.

I will be a bit more specific. The girl who has been orphaned by her soldier father and lost track of by her mother is brought up by an entire French regiment where in time she meets a young Tyrolean fellow and falls in love with him. In time, she does gain the consent of her multiple "fathers" to marry this fellow from the other side who in turn enlists in the regiment to be near her. However, the woman who had lost track of the girl and who identifies herself as the girl's aunt, finds the girl and takes her back to her chateau which results in her losing the boy. The aunt plans to marry the girl off to someone wealthy. This plan is undone when the entire regiment shows up at her chateau along with the boy she is in love with. The aunt now identified as the girl's actual mother gives in and the girl is reunited with the boy she loves.

Now, on to the performance. Given the pressures of performing with a substitute cast, I thought that the acting part of the performance went off well. No one seemed to wander off in the wrong direction. In fact, the acting looked very practiced. Leah Partridge, who was substituting for Diana Damrau, sang the part of Marie. I thought that Ms. Partridge out-Dessayed Dessay in terms of her mannerisms. Partridge's mannerisms gave the role a kind of campy humor and lightheartedness. However, the cost of doing this was not developing greater depth in the character of Marie.

Partridege played Marie as a kind of gangly youth with her arms continually flailing about. I don't think that this necessarily squares with the kind of real world upbringing that Marie had as the daughter of a regiment of soldiers. The only point where Partridge strove for poignancy was in the aria C'en est donc fait in which Marie bemoans her fate to have to marry a man who she does not love instead of Tonio her real love. By the time of this aria, Marie's character and the overall tone of the performance had already been sufficiently developed such that searching for this poignancy was swimming against the current. I think Ms. partridge could have downplayed the mannerisms a bit so as to also develop the humanness of Marie. It may be that this was a result of the overall direction of this comedic opera. This version of the aria C'en est donc fait by Natalie Dessay allows one more access to the internal humanness of Marie.

Kiri Te Kanawa made a cameo appearance as the Duchess of Krakenthorp in which role she added to the humor of the performance. Almost every action by Kanawa elicited applause or laughter or both from the audience - whether blocking a door with both arms or simply walking across the stage. Everyone, including myself, seemed happy to find her on stage in this opera. For me, it was the first time that I had heard her perform in person.

Humor was also added to the production by references to the absence of the wealthy husband-to-be of Marie because of his obligations at the "Olympics."

Ms. Partridge singing the role of Marie started off a little inconsistently. Sometimes her voice was audible and enjoyable and other times it became less audible and, thus, less impactful. I attribute this to nervousness, because as the performance progressed, her voice became consistently strong. In fact, she was able to project well whether standing, lying down or being carried. She seemed to have the singing part of the role well-mastered and as the opera progressed appeared to thoroughly give herself over to the role. Her voice reminds me of Kathleen Battle but with a lot more lightheartedness behind it. I found myself becoming more engaged with her singing and not at all concerned that as an understudy she would fail to carry the performance.

Lawrence Brownlee, the understudy for Juan Diego Florez, sang the role of Tonio. Mr. Brownlee's voice has a nice tone to it and he also knew his part quite well. The audience responded to his singing with applause and bravos. To me, his voice seemed weak in terms of how he projected. Because of that,  he failed to engage or impact me. I constantly wanted more from him. Perhaps, others in the audience know something that I do not. I think that his voice could be better appreciated in a smaller, more intimate setting rather than in the large space of the Met. His performance of the aria Ah! Mes amis, quel jour de fete! appeared to be technically sound but lacking vocal and emotional power. Unfortunately for him, I had a tape of Pavoratti singing this aria going through my mind. The version of the aria cited here is performed by Juan Diego Florez.

Meredith Arwady sang the role of the Marquis of Berkenfield and Maurizio Muraro the role of Sulpice, the sergeant. Both were entertainng and sang well as far as I could tell.

The conductor was Marco Armiliato.

All in all, it was a competent production and would be worthy of many big city opera companies. However, having been accustomed to la creme de la creme at the Met, I was entertained but not awed by the overall performance. I was hoping for something more like this. 

Comments

[Glyn]

Unlike the author, I did not find Lawrence Brownlee's voice insufficient for this role. What I responded to and which may have been the cause for so many in the audience to stand up and cheer was the emotion that he had no trouble conveying as he sang of his love for Marie. That expression is, after all, what makes live opera a place I return to as often as possible.