THE DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT

An opera in 2 acts, sung in French and Lithuanian

Didžioji scena

Libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard
(spoken dialogues translated into Lithuanian by Virginijus Pupšys)

Composer Gaetano Donizetti

Music Director and Conductor Martynas Staškus

Director Jūratė Sodytė

Set Designer Sigita Šimkūnaitė

Costume Designer Agnė Kuzmickaitė

Lighting Designer Andrius Stasiulis

Choirmaster Vladimiras Konstantinovas

Cast:

Marie – Lina Dambrauskaitė

Tonio – Mindaugas Jankauskas

Sergeant Sulpice – Liudas Mikalakauskas

The Marquise of Berkenfield – Dalia Kužmarskytė

Hortensius – Modestas Narmontas

A corporal – Valdas Kazlauskas

The Dutchess of Krakenthorp – Virginija Kochanskytė

A notary – Kęstutis Nevulis

Dance teacher – Kristina Gudelytė

Accompanist – Carmelo Giuseppe Longo

Soldiers of the 21^st regiment, French ladies – members of the KSMT Choir

Algerians, servants – dancers of the KSMT Ballet Company

Klaipėda State Music Theatre Symphony Orchestra
(Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Tomas Ambrozaitis)

The French comic opera La fille du régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment) by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) has reigned in the world’s opera houses for almost two hundred years ever since its premiere in Paris, in 1840, before it received its first production in Lithuania at the Klaipėda State Music Theatre in November 2021. Donizetti seems to have written the opera in just a few weeks: “What I did well, I always did quickly; and I was often reproached for the very carelessness that cost me the most time.” The success of the La fille du régiment confirms this observation. The music of the opera is bursting with ostensible simplicity and carefree gaiety but all the same requires a veritable tour de force of voices, sometimes reminiscent of vocal pyrotechnics, and calls for extraordinary theatrical abilities of the two leading performers.

In the opera’s staging introduced to the Lithuanian audiences, director Jūratė Sodytė decided to change the period and locale of the action from the time of Napoleon’s Austrian Campaign (1805–1815) to the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962).

The plot of this romantic comedy is enacted on stage of the Klaipėda State Music Theatre by the company’s best opera soloists and guest singers, members of the choir and ballet company. According to the latest trends in the world’s opera houses, the vocal lines are sung in French and spoken dialogues are translated into Lithuanian to ensure better understanding of the circumstances that propel action.