Donizetti - La Fille du Regiment (The Daughter of the Regiment) / Bonynge, Sutherland, Australian Opera

Even though Sutherland was best known for the many heroines, most of them loony, that she portrayed in the serious operas of the bel canto era, her true métier was comedy. Her sense of timing was flawless. At Marie's entrance Sutherland appears to do several drum rolls and then one time the offstage drummer does a roll that she "accidentally" fails to follow, with a delightful reaction on her part; she returns to this joke once more during her entrance aria that follows. The second act includes a long comic tour de force as Sutherland, playing a canteen girl brought against her will into high society, is forced to rehearse a rather long-winded and stuffy song her "aunt" (actually her mother trying to cover up Marie's illegitimate birth) wants her to perform. For me the highlight of her visual performance involves one of the oldest gags in the book, a scene where she follows her aunt around mimicking her gestures; each time the poor aunt turns around Marie adopts a pose facing the audience that belies the fact that she has been making fun of her. She is so natural and so delightful in this scene that she had me rolling on the floor with laughter.

But what about vocally? you ask. How does she measure up? Well, I'll start with the bad stuff, what little of it there is: Sutherland simplifies the music only very slightly from her celebrated recording from 15 years earlier (a high note omitted here, a long note cut short there), and her imitation of a bugle call near the beginning of the opera contains a few (and I mean few) notes that are a bit flat, a flaw she corrects by the end of that call. Other than that, she is in very good voice, with even the famous Sutherland trill still very much in place. Perhaps I might be expected to say at this point that "she is in very good voice for an almost-60-year-old woman," and as it turns out no apologies are necessary. Sopranos half her age might well have cause to be envious. We were very fortunate to have Sutherland for as long as we did; when will her like come along again? And while it is true that most of the men in the chorus who played her many loving regimental "fathers" do appear to be half Sutherland's age or younger, this was probably less evident in actual performance than on television. Still the television director, not wanting to push his luck, uses few true close-ups. Bottom line is that the audience truly loves her, and who can blame them?

The rest of the cast does not let the side down either. Veteran Heather Begg, looking and sounding older than she probably actually was (check her out in the Adriana Lecouvreur video made two years later to get a better idea of her actual age), is appropriately snooty and stuffy. She also shows herself to be a good comic actress as well, particularly in the aforementioned rehearsal scene. Anson Austin, Sutherland's partner in a number of these Australian videos, sings well enough. He does sound a bit raw in a few of the nine high C's in his big aria, although he recovers in time to do a good and long-held final one. Gregory Yurisich as Sergeant Sulpice is nowhere near as crusty as I might expect an old sergeant to be; still he was fun to watch and very much into the piece. Richard Bonynge's conducting is buoyant and very supportive of the singers.

Production values could have been a bit better. All we get is the opera with no special features. Picture and sound are good, although it would have been nice to at least be able to turn the subtitles on and off, something that is possibly not Kultur's fault. Anyway, the lack of special features is the only reason I gave the DVD four stars instead of five.

This is easily the best of the Sutherland videos that I have seen, even if I still regret that nobody took the time to videotape her Semiramide or Esclarmonde. Highly recommended for those who want to spend a couple of hours enjoying one of the more fun comic operas, and even more highly recommended for Sutherland fans.

Regarding the opera production, it is a real delight! Joan may not have all her power and high notes in her prime, but she showed us what a brilliant actress she is. The orchestra played real well under Richard's conducting. The tenor is no Pavarotti, but is quite acceptable.

I just hope that Kultur can start improving their DVD production quality. Otherwise, so many great performing archives that Kultur owns the release right will be ruined.