La fille du régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment) is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti, set to a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard. It was first performed on February 11, 1840 by the Paris Opéra-Comique.

The opera was written by Donizetti while he was living in Paris between 1838 and 1840 preparing a revised version of his then-unperformed Italian opera, Poliuto as Les martyrs for the Paris Opéra. Since Martyrs was delayed, the composer had time to write the music for La fille, his first opera set to a French text, as well as to stage the French version of Lucia di Lammermoor as Lucie de Lammermoor

As La fille, it quickly became a popular success, partly because of the famous aria "Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fête!", which requires of the tenor no fewer than nine high Cs. It was this aria that put Luciano Pavarotti on the map in the late 60’s and it is Pavarotti that we will hear in this DECCA recording from 1968.

Cast:

Marie – Joan Sutherland

Tonio – Luciano Pavarotti

Sulpice – Sprio Malas

The Dutchess of Crankentorp – Edith Coates

Orchestra and Chorus of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Richard Bonynge – Conductor

DECCA - 1968