There was a buzz in the downstairs café as we awaited a swoon-worthy performance by the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez in the role of Tonio in Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment. The famous nine high Cs in “Ah! mes amis” would be hit with aplomb, and we would willingly suspend our disbelief that this 53-year-old could be a convincing twenty-something suitor to the daughter of the regiment. And, to be clear, he didn’t disappoint. The rest of the opera, I anticipated, would be light and breezy in the bel canto tradition. What surprised me, though, was just how perfect it felt: the direction, choreography, conducting and staging created the sensation of a holiday in the Alps rather than an opera set in the Tirol.
The plot of La Fille du Régiment has more twists and turns than the billowing line of regimental laundry. An abandoned child is found on a battlefield and adopted by the regiment, a cuddly bunch of mishaps more Dad’s Army than Dogs of War. As she grows up, Marie helps with the regiment’s endless laundry while stealing every opportunity to kiss her naïve Tyrolean admirer, Tonio. The roly-poly, moustachioed Sergeant Sulpice (Paolo Bordogna) and the rest of the regiment are dismayed. In a twist of fate, the Marquise de Berkenfield discovers that the foundling is one of her own.
This thrills nobody.
A distraught Marie is taken to the ancestral château, where she pines, while the Marquise fails to teach her the requisite airs and graces. The regimental fathers are heartbroken until a forlorn Tonio finally finds the bottle to tell the Marquise that he will reveal her dark secret.
As expected, the audience erupted into applause after Flórez dispatched the famous nine high Cs in “Ah! mes amis” with astonishing ease. Singing with a bright, effortless upper register and remarkable breath control, he made one of opera’s most feared arias sound deceptively simple. Flórez also shared palpable chemistry with the tomboyish Marie, played by Sara Blanch, who was making her Royal Opera House debut. She matched that exuberance with a voice of youthful purity and crystalline clarity.
Chantal Thomas has created an imaginative set design. Act One unfolds across the hilly topography of Ordnance Survey maps, with Marie’s laundry transformed into rocky outcrops. The setting is humorously punctuated by the occasional appearance of vintage postcards. The mahogany interior of the château in Act Two is stripped of walls and lined with empty picture frames, creating memorable tableaux as members of the regiment squeeze themselves into the frames.
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House played with sparkle and elegance, giving Donizetti’s score all the buoyancy and wit it deserves.
Because the opera contains so much spoken dialogue, comic timing is everything. Yves Abel’s conducting kept the action fizzing along, never allowing the energy to dip. One of the evening’s comic highlights came with the absurd entrance of the Marquise de Berkenfield (Sonia Ganassi), swathed in green velvet and fox fur, staggering through a war zone while pleading with Sulpice for safe passage over the Alps. Tamsin Greig was superbly cast as the vinegary Duchesse de Crakentorp, her standout performance exuding pomposity and spite in equal measure. Her entrance alongside the inebriated aristocracy was an operatic moment to treasure, as the chorus shuffled, hunched and teetered in a sequence worthy of a Disney animation.
As the curtain fell, nobody made for the exits. The audience stayed rooted to their seats through the comic curtain calls before rewarding the cast with prolonged, rapturous applause.
Laurent Pelly has created a warm, cosy production suffused with infectious energy and masterful contrasts between the alpine outdoors, with its rustic and jovial soldiers, and the stuffy pretensions of the château and its entourage. This is one of those rare productions where everything works: inspired direction, imaginative staging, immaculate comic timing and glorious singing. Whether you’re an opera devotee or a curious newcomer, it’s difficult to imagine a more joyful introduction to bel canto.
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ROH La Fille du Régiment runs until 24 July 2026. Tickets can be purchased from the RBO Website.
