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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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COMIC OPERA ????????? maybe only good singing
Ciofi seems so serious, nervous and not naturalduring the whole opera. Florez did'nt seem to enjoye on stage as in other productions. Singing is wonderful, specially FLOREZ, but I missed the fun of Sutherland in the Sydney production of August 1986. She was not at her best but I really enjoyed her singing and acting. I would like to have seen her and Florez. The 5 stars are only for the singing because the rest does not deserve that high rate, specially the sets and costumes.
Rating: 
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NOT FUNNY , NOT LA FILLE...
Don't get me wrong,this production deserves 5+++ stars for singing by Patrizia Ciofi and Juan Diego Florez. But does anybody on the stage or in the audience remembered that it supposed to be a comedy? Did you hear anybody in the theater laughing? Not at all. People went wild for Juan's 9 high Cs or Patrizia's "Il faut partir!", both were superb! But that does not make it La Fille...
First culprit is staging. Transposing operas to different times sometimes works, most often it doesn't. This is a very plausable transfer to World War Two, but I don't see the point. Nothing gained, no any new insights, other way around:comic aspect is lost. It gets too real, too serious. And at the same time - why would a girl, at this time and being were she is, listen to her aunt?
Second problem is casting of Patrizia Ciofi. I like her singing very much and have every DVD available with her singing. But she is not a comic actress, not even the comic singer. Her "Chacun le sait,chacun le dit" does not sparkle with humor and fun. She is the tragic actress, as her Lucia or Giulietta (in Bellini's Capuleti e Montecchi) so brilliantly show. She is an outstanding singer, but it is hard to watch her facial expressions, when she sings. In this performance she tries hard, but it still comes more tragic, than comic. Her Marie is not charming, but simply raff.
Juan Diego Florez is much more in his element. He is great comic actor as well as singer and there are plenty of other performances were he shines. This is not one of them. His singing though is very exciting and to have an encore in the middle of an opera, is a treat and one more confirmation, what this performance is all about.
The rest of the cast is OK. The chorus is barely making it. The same problem, no sparkle, no fun and not much of Bel Canto singing either.
Overall: Get it if you want to hear Juan Diego Florez sailing brilliantly through nine Cs - But get another Fille for Donizetti's comedy.
Rating: -
A Lively Staging of a Beloved Opera
LA FILLE DU REGIMENT, with its lighthearted music and vocal fireworks, is a favorite that has spurts of being staged due more to a dearth of singers who can perform the roles than anything else. In the 1960's and 70's, Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti wowed audiences the world over and recorded what is considered by many to be the definitive recording of the work. Today, the popular and gifted light tenor Juan Diego Florez has made the role of Tonio his own, and this DVD has captured Florez' vocal abilities and stage presence well. Likewise Patrizia Ciofi is a compelling Marie. Neither Florez nor Ciofi match the Sutherland/Pavarotti pairing, but both are more vocally suited for the roles. Ideally the role of Tonio should be performed by a tenor with a lighter voice than Pavarotti's (even though he's great in the role and his fuller voice, especially at the time he recorded it, is phenomenal), and casting Florez is nearly perfect, reminding listeners of Alfredo Kraus). Ciofi is likewise at home in her performance, at least vocally.
If this were a recording, it would probably be a five star disc. However, it's a DVD, so the visual has to be taken into account too. For some reason, Teatro Carlo Fenice decided to update the story from late 18th/early 19th century France to World War II with the Americans and French at war with each other, not exactly historically accurate. The problem I had with the updating is that it doesn't match the story itself. An orphan girl being adopted by an army regiment that views the girl as a daughter and never in a sexual way, is not the most believable story, unless it happens at a time when we can naively imagine such a story. The Marquise "adopting" Marie and trying to refine her also seems more plausible in an earlier day. Instead, the updating seems out of place and antics seemed silly in an updated staging whereas setting it back to its original setting makes it a bit more believable. Though the staging at times could be distracting, but never so distracting that it took away from the wonderful performances. Keep in mind too, the cameras would have picked up facial expression that would have been missed by the audience at Fenice, so the distractions of the DVD were probably not all that much of a problem for the live audience.
The audience must have overlooked the staging problems. Everything from a musical perspective was enthusiastically received. Florez did an encore of Tonio's nine High c's in "A Mes Ami" and hit all the notes in both performances. Musically it was a great night of theater and it's certain to be a DVD that will be popular for years to come.
Rating: -
not the best possible
While this performance is great and probably the best available, with Florez singing Ah mes amis twice, his performance in London with Dessay was better, due to her superb singing and better staging. It is a crying shame that Decca cannot or will not bring out the very best of his performances since they need to be preserved for posterity. Decca controls what comes out since he has an exclusive contract with them and they are the doorkeeper to his recordings. I believe that almost all live performances are taped and all Decca would have to do is to use the London performance tape and issue a version with Dessay. But whether Decca feels any obligation to art and to posterity is not certain.
Rating: -
Fine but not great
The opera is a minor work that gained popularity with Pavarotti at the Met. I admit that Pavarotti also gained popularity at the same time.
The change to World War II may have saved some money on costumes but I believe it was a very bad decision which made the opera look even "more minor".
Ciofi sang very well and she is not a bad looking lady. However, she made me nervous with the face expressions that she used. On the other hand, Florez has a very strong and far reaching voice but I did not like the color of its voice. It is way too nasal for me. He sounds like a strong "tenorino".
Other than that, it was a good production. I enjoyed again the pretty melodies and the 9 Cs which where "encored".
