[Our Own Gualtier Maldè reports from this afternoon's dress rehearsal of La Fille du Régiment]
The Met has another hit on its hands — though not a totally new one, this production and cast already having triumphed at Covent Garden and the Vienna Staatsoper.
Laurent Pelly (who vies with Davide Alagna and Mark Streshinsky as cutest director working in opera today) has put together a show whose ensemble works better (thanks to the superb cast) than the problematic individual production pieces. The setting is moved forward to sometime in the early twentieth century – probably World War I era. This is not a problem since the social and political mores of the piece work just as well in this setting.
The sets by Chantal Thomas consist of war maps from the Napoleonic era built up and spread across the stage to resemble hills, valley and alps. A surreal cut-out chateau interior is placed upon this for the Birkenfield castle in Act II. The set design looked dreary and cluttered in the set model maquettes on display at the Met. On the Met stage they looked bright, spare but rather flat in a surreal disorienting way rather like the Cesare Lievi La Cenerentola production. Like the piece itself, the sets would work more charmingly in a smaller theater. The second act works much better than the first in toto. Read more »
Cher Public