Opéra-Comique premiere The opening night was "a barely averted disaster." Apparently the lead tenor was frequently off pitch. The noted French tenor
Gilbert Duprez, who was present, later observed in his ''Souvenirs d'un chanteur
: "Donizetti often swore to me how his self-esteem as a composer had suffered in Paris. He was never treated there according to his merits. I myself saw the unsuccess, almost the collapse, of La fille du régiment''." It received a highly negative review from the French critic and composer
Hector Berlioz (
Journal des débats, 16 February 1840), who claimed it could not be taken seriously by the public or its composer, although Berlioz conceded that some of the music, "the little waltz that serves as the entr'acte and the trio
dialogué ... lack neither vivacity nor freshness."
Outside France The opera was first performed in Italy at
La Scala, Milan, on 3 October 1840, in Italian with recitatives by Donizetti replacing the spoken dialogue. It was thought "worthless" and received only six performances. Only in 1928, when
Toti Dal Monte sang Marie, did the opera begin to be appreciated in Italy.
La fille du régiment received its first performance in America on 7 March 1843 at the
Théâtre d'Orléans in New Orleans. The New Orleans company premiered the work in New York City on 19 July 1843 with as Marie. The
Spirit of the Times (22 July) counted it a great success, reporting that, though the score was "thin" and not up to the level of
Anna Bolena or ''
L'elisir d'amore'', some of Donizetti's "gems" were to be found in it. The
Herald (21 July) was highly enthusiastic, especially in its praise of Calvé: "Applause is an inadequate term, ... vehement cheering rewarded this talented prima donna." Subsequently the opera was performed frequently in New York, the role of Marie being a favorite with
Jenny Lind,
Henriette Sontag,
Pauline Lucca,
Anna Thillon and
Adelina Patti. First given in England in Italian, it appeared on 27 May 1847 at
Her Majesty's Theatre in London (with Jenny Lind and
Luigi Lablache). Later—on 21 December 1847 in English—it was presented at the
Surrey Theatre in London.
W. S. Gilbert wrote a
burlesque adaptation of the opera,
La Vivandière, in 1867. In 1891 in
Kronstadt during the
Kronstadt-Toloun naval visits, Some 600 guests attended and entertainment included the singing of both countries' national anthems and the performance of the second act of this opera.
20th century and beyond The
Metropolitan Opera gave the first performances with
Marcella Sembrich and (Sulpice) during the 1902/03 season. These were followed by performances at the
Manhattan Opera House in 1909 with
Luisa Tetrazzini,
John McCormack, and Charles Gilibert, and again with
Frieda Hempel and
Antonio Scotti in the same roles at the Met on 17 December 1917. It was revived at the
Royal Opera, London, in 1966 for
Joan Sutherland. On 13 February 1970, in concert at
Carnegie Hall,
Beverly Sills sang the first performance in New York since
Lily Pons performed it at the
Metropolitan Opera House in 1943. This opera is famous for the aria "", which has been called the "Mount Everest" for tenors. The
cabaletta "Pour mon âme" features eight
high Cs (a ninth, frequently inserted, is not written).
Luciano Pavarotti broke through to stardom via his 1972 performance alongside Sutherland at the Met, when, according to an obituary by
James Naughtie in
The Times, he "leapt over the '
Becher's Brook' of the string of high Cs with an aplomb that left everyone gasping." It was performed at
Wolf Trap Farm in the summer of 1974 with
Beverly Sills as Marie in one of the first attempts to telecast an opera in the USA. breaking a tradition against
encores at La Scala that had lasted nearly 75 years. Flórez repeated this feat on 21 April 2008, the opening night of
Laurent Pelly's production (which had been originally staged in 2007 at
Covent Garden in London) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with
Natalie Dessay as Marie; a live performance of this Met production, without an encore of "", was cinecast via
Metropolitan Opera Live in HD to movie theaters worldwide on 26 April 2008. In March 2018, in a filmed production of the opera at the
National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing, Chinese tenor (Chinese style: Shi Yijie) encored "Pour mon âme", singing 18 high Cs; the audio of this 2018 NCPA production was broadcast across the U.S. and elsewhere on the
WFMT Radio Network Opera Series on 16 September 2023. On 3 March 2019, Mexican tenor
Javier Camarena also sang an encore of the aria at the Met, singing 18 high Cs in a performance broadcast live worldwide via
Metropolitan Opera radio and cinecast worldwide via Metropolitan Opera Live in HD. As a non-singing role, the Duchess of Crakenthorp is often played by non-operatic celebrities, including actresses such as
Dawn French,
Bea Arthur,
Hermione Gingold,
Kathleen Turner and
Sandra Oh, or by retired opera greats such as
Kiri Te Kanawa and
Montserrat Caballé. In 2016,
US Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a lifelong opera fan, played the Duchess on opening night of the
Washington National Opera's production. In February 2023, the Duchess of Crakenthorp was re-tooled by the Minnesota Opera as a singing role and performed by American drag queen
Monét X Change. Today, the opera has become part of the
standard repertoire.
Films The opera was filmed in a
silent film in 1929; a sound film with
Anny Ondra in 1933 in German and separately in French;
in 1953; and in 1962 with
John van Kesteren as Tonio. It inspired the 1944 Mexican musical comedy film
La hija del regimiento.
BBC Television broadcast a production from the
Royal Opera House in 2007, conducted by
Bruno Campanella, with
Natalie Dessay and
Juan Diego Flórez in the lead roles. This is available on DVD. ==Roles==