After recent successes with The Elixir of Love, Don Pasquale, and Lucia di Lammermoor, Livermore Valley Opera (LVO) rounds out its feast of Gaetano Donizetti’s operas this fall with La fille du régiment (The daughter of the regiment). But this is no ordinary production for the pair of divas driving the performances, Sept. 28 – Oct. 6 at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore. These two women, at different points in their careers, share something unique: both consider the role of Marie in La fille to be a highlight of their operatic lives.
LVO Artistic Director Erie Mills is a spitfire, and speaking with her, one can’t help but notice that her personality and charisma resemble the title character’s. A former Metropolitan Opera soprano, Mills performed the role more times than any other in her vast repertoire. “I sang Marie for the first time with Tulsa Opera in the early 1980s and then with several companies over the next 10 years, performing the role in both French and English,” says Mills. “I love Marie because she is an adorable character, and the music is gorgeous. She makes people on and off the stage smile. What could be better than that?”
Mills continues, “Marie is also one of the few title characters [written] for lyric coloratura sopranos. I knew when I heard [French American soprano] Véronique Filloux that she would be a perfect Marie. She’s a beautiful singer and committed actor, and it turned out she had been dying to sing the role.”
Filloux’s credits include roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Central City Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Arizona Opera. With LVO last season, she starred as Curley’s Wife in Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men, and she sees her upcoming role debut in La fille as the fulfillment of a longtime goal. “I fell in love with Marie when I was still in high school,” she says. “My mom took me to San Francisco Opera for the first time to see La fille du régiment. It was life-changing.”
One of the powerful aspects of Marie’s character is how seamlessly she adapts to a male-dominated environment. Filloux continues, “Marie is a woman who is largely untouched by the shoulds of gender norms. It’s so refreshing and joyful to see her barreling around the stage in a way that just feels authentic rather than inherently feminine or masculine. She’s been named a vivandière, which historically would mean that she could be out on the battlefield alongside the men.”
Singing in French has always brought Filloux, a native speaker, joy. “The French side of my family is filled with explorers, artists, and brave, colorful people who I love very much, many of them with goofy senses of humor, just like Marie and Sulpice. The whole piece gives me a lot of nostalgia and joy for my own family, as I see reflections of us in all of these characters. The challenge has been taking in and being inspired by all of the wonderful traditions and interpretations of Marie and then deciding how I personally want to sing and inhabit her.”
Marc Jacobs is the stage director for this production (and also directed last season’s Of Mice and Men). “This is an opera about family — both blood relations and families that are found or chosen,” he says. “It is full of hairpin mood changes, from comedy to drama and back again, so the audience can be laughing one moment and tearing up with genuine emotion the next.”
Rounding out the cast are some LVO stalwarts, as well as a few newcomers: tenor Chris Mosz as Tonio, baritone Eugene Brancoveanu as Sulpice, mezzo-soprano Lisa Chavez as the Marquise of Berkenfield, and Debra Lambert as the Duchess of Krackenthorp. Leading the orchestra is LVO Music Director Alexander Katsman.
For tickets and more information, visit LVO’s website or call 925-373-6800.
