The Met finished its HD season with an unmitigated triumph: Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez. It was fantastic – silliness raised to the level of high art! Think the Marx Brothers, Lucille Ball or Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Better yet, think Laurent Pelly, the gifted man who directed this romp, and his rubber-boned coloratura star Natalie Dessay. And in the middle of this nuttiness was the man who stopped the show with his nine perfectly-placed high Cs: Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez.

I have always believed that the Italian comic operas of Rossini and Donizetti were as much about gifted vaudevillians and commedia dell’ arte stock characters doing their patented bits of business as about the music; this was popular entertainment. I also believe that until recently that tradition had been lost and replaced by a stand and deliver kind of performing style that absolutely drained the life out of these pieces. It was wonderful to hear Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti in “La Fille du Régiment”, but they were neither actors nor comedians.

Now comes a director like Pelly who knows what it takes to get laughs and artists like Dessay who could probably have careers doing sitcoms. In this production it is worth the price of admission watching Dessay ironing and folding clothes in the first scene of the opera. I was reminded of Lucille Ball trying to keep up with the chocolates on the conveyor belt in a classic routine. The impossibly talented Dessay does her ironing and folding while singing superbly some of the most difficult music ever written!

Dessay is a phenomenon – one of a kind – but she so brilliantly brings to life Pelly’s concept that the rest of the company cannot help but follow. And indeed they did. Every member of the cast had bits of business to do; what made it all so remarkable and rare was that the business was nearly always related to patterns and rhythms in the music. During the orchestral introduction to Act Two four maids are seen busily cleaning the main room in the Berkenfield Castle; each one has been given a distinctive set of movements related to the music and it is a hilarious pantomime.

Natalie (she dropped the ‘h’ in honor of Natalie Wood, by the way) Dessay was in perpetual motion throughout the performance, and so much fun to watch one forgets what a fine singer she is. Dessay made her reputation tossing off the showy coloratura parts but she has matured into an artist who can sustain a long line with the best of them. She has the talent to thrill you with vocal acrobatics or break your heart with bel canto at its best. And here she is partnered with a handsome young tenor who is nearly her equal. Although Florez showed he could match Pavarotti high C for high C he is a different kind of singer altogether. For one thing he has a much lighter voice, and for another he is much, much lighter on his feet. He looks the part in a way that Pavarotti never did in such roles.

James Levine is gradually reducing his workload at the Met and bringing in a fine crop of younger conductors. For “La Fille du Régiment” Marco Armiliato was in the pit and kept the music and shenanigans in near-perfect balance.

It was a full house at the Metropolitan 14 in Austin and the audience loved every minute of this fine season-ending production from the Met. Next season there will again be more operas in HD, in fact 10 of them and the opening gala.

The Met HD season has been impressive, but the technology is still not quite where it needs to be. The video direction is beyond criticism; the quick-cutting on the fly during the ensembles in “La Fille du Régiment” was stunning and the robotic camera running back and forth along a track behind the orchestra pit is a great asset. The overall look on the screen, however, is still too dark and somewhat fuzzy. By comparison, the filmed operas from San Francisco – also in HD – are bright and crisp. The Met audio is not state-of-the-art either. The voices sound fine but there is a hard edge on the upper strings and not much bass.

Incidentally, this Met production of “La Fille du Régiment” had already been presented in Vienna and London with virtually the same cast and sets. It was filmed in London at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in January of last year and has just been released on DVD (Virgin 519002-9). Can’t get enough of Natalie Dessay? She has an excellent new CD of Italian opera arias (Virgin 395243-2). And not to be outdone, Juan Diego Florez also has a new album: Voce d’Italia: Arias for Rubini (Decca 475 907-9).

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