I Should Be So Lucky Lucky Lucky Lucky

[Incredible news do indeed call for inept pop song references]

Natalie Dessay, Act I, La Fille du Régiment, Covent Garden 2007

Remember when I said yesterday the best way to get tickets is to plan way ahead?
Well, that's true, for sure. To a certain extend.

"Never underestimate the power of luck" is my new motto today. And what a beautiful Sunday it has been. Full of passion, emotions and luck.
Especially full of luck.

This afternoon, I was watching, in total despair, the magnificent Covent Garden's La Fille du Régiment I also talked about yesterday. I was contemplating, with greater desolation, the fact that it will only come back in Paris in 4 years (2012). Who knows what can happen, in 4 years, to the voice of Dessay or JDF. I was therefore envying these lucky New Yorkers who will enjoy this production in April / May.

I went to check the dates of the performances, in order to schedule the day of the broadcast. But then again, and I never say that, this production is going to lack so much with the sound only.
And that's when the lightning struck.
Not only were there still few seats available for the premiere on April 21, but I am indeed on vacation on this very week.

So, ladies and gentlemen, with overwhelming emotion, I will see this fantastic production of Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment live, in a few months. How great is that seriously?



Cast

Conductor: Marco Armiliato
Marie: Natalie Dessay
Marquise of Berkenfeld: Felicity Palmer
Tonio: Juan Diego Flórez
Sulpice: Alessandro Corbelli
Duchess of Krakenthorp: Zoe Caldwell

Production: Laurent Pelly
Set Designer: Chantal Thomas
Costume Designer: Laurent Pelly
Lighting Designer: Joël Adam
Choreographer: Laura Scozzi
Associate Director/Dialogue: Agathe Mélinand (whose name is wrongly spelled on the MET's website - no luck for her there).

YouTube extracts of this production
[London / Vienna performances]

• "Chacun le dit, chacun le sait", Natalie Dessay, Act 1
  
• "Ah mes amis!", JDF, Act 1
• Begining of act 2, Dawn French
• "Le jour naissait dans le bocage", Dessay, Act 2
  
• "Pour me rapprocher de Marie", JDF, Act 2
  
• "Salut à la France", Dessay, Act 2
• Channel 4 report on the production
  

Oh and by the way, I love the weak dollar against the euro too. €450 for plane tickets from Lyon to New York, that's what I call a bargain!