On today’s date in 1840, a new opera by Gaetano Donizetti debuted at the Opéra Comique in Paris. This was La Fille du Régiment, or The Daughter of the Regiment. Other operas by the popular Italian composer were already playing in Paris, and others were scheduled. Despite being tailor-made to Parisian tastes, The Daughter of the Regiment was not well received.
Apparently, French composers, Berlioz among them, felt threatened by the Donizetti blitz.
“Monsieur Donizetti seems to treat us like a conquered country,” Berlioz wrote. “It is a veritable invasion. One can no longer speak of the opera houses of Paris, but only of the opera houses of Donizetti!”
Well, eventually, Donizetti did win over French hearts and minds. And it’s ironic to note that 100 years after its 1840 premiere, Paris was indeed an occupied country. In 1940, German tanks rolled into Paris, and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, patriotic French soprano Lily Pons used her starring role in a revival of Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment to express her solidarity with the French Resistance. She added a rousing version of La Marseillaise to the finale of Donizetti’s score, which brought sympathetic American audiences to their feet.
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848): La Fille du Regiment, excerpt; Joan Sutherland, soprano; Covent Garden Orchestra; Richard Bonynge, cond. London 414 520
Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836) (arr. Berlioz): La Marseillaise; Jessye Norman, soprano; Paris Orchestra; Semyon Bychkov, cond. Philips 422 922