josephknowles 17 May 2012 at 10:34pm (Report this message)

Hi

I was lucky enough to recieve tickets for La fille du regiment at Covent Garden last week for my birthday. Needless to say, it made for a great night out. I've read that since the first outing of the production it's lost some of its edge and sparkle, but there was some beautiful singing and gorgeous arias by Colin Lee and I was thourghly entertained throughout.

Anyway, I'm sure enough has been said already about the production. What really stuck out was the casting of Ann Widdecombe replacing Dawn French as La Duchesse de Crakentorp. I know it's a comedy role, and I'm sure she was chosen for the right reasons., I just think that making references to "Strictly" might have been a step too far... Otherwise she was quite amusing and she was clearly enjoying herself.

I overheard lots of comments about her, and she certainly caused a lot of discussion both in the Opera house and online. I wondered what people really thought. At least she wasn't singing!