from Act I of the French opera
La Fille du Régiment by Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto: Jean Francois Bayard
Role: Marie, a young woman raised by a regiment of French Grenadiers
Voice Part: soprano Fach: lyric coloratura
Setting: an army camp site in a valley in the Swiss Tyrolese Mountains, 1815
Synopsis: The Marquise de Birkenfeld finds that Marie is actually her niece and requires Marie to live with her at the Marquise's castle. Marie tells the regiment that she must leave them but that she does not want them to be unhappy. She explains the sadness that she will feel when she is away from them.