Comic Opera Classic

In a co-production with The Vienna State Opera and New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera's 2026 season brings acclaimed French director Laurent Pelly's staging of Gaetano Donizetti's hilarious opera La Fille Du Regiment ("The Daughter of the Regiment"), wonderfully evoking the Tyrolian Alps and an enthusiastic band of soldiers raising the tomboyish Marie. Conducted by Yves Abel and featuring soprano Sara Blanch making her debut on the Royal Opera stage in the role of Marie, Pelly's production takes the best of Donizetti's original, replete with its slapstick and masquerade, and breathes new life into it for the London stage.

What Is The Story?

Orphan Marie was found on the field of battle as a baby, and has been raised by troupe of French soldiers whom she thinks of as her 'fathers'. When she is of age, a mysterious stranger arrives from her past, intending to train her up for high society and eventually take her as his wife. But tomboy Marie isn't going down without a fight. And besides, her heart is already promised to Tonio, a strapping peasant lad who saved her life...