We’re still riding high on the success of our Butterfly, but there’s no rest for the weary in opera! We’re already hard at work on our next production: Rossini’s charming take on Cinderella, La Cenerentola. 

The story of Cinderella has inspired writers, poets, artists, playwrights, and composers for thousands of years. The story of Rhodopis, recounted by the Greek geographer Strabo sometime between 7 BC and AD 23, about an enslaved Greek woman who marries the king of Egypt, is usually considered to be the earliest known version of the Cinderella story. The Chinese fairy tale Ye Xian, in which the main character loses a shoe on her way home from a royal party, is included in a collection of folk tales by Duan Chengshi during the Tang Dynasty in China. While the first literary European version of the story was published in Italy by Giambattista Basile in 1634, the version most of us know appeared in Charles Perrault’s Histoires ou contes du temps passé in 1697. Another – much darker – version was later published as “Aschenputtel” by the Brothers Grimm in 1812’s Grimms’ Fairy Tales.

Generations of opera composers have created their own versions, each with their own unique charms. 

La Cenerentola by Gioachino Rossini (1817)

Rossini composed La Cenerentola when he was 25 years old, following the success of The Barber of Seville the year before. La Cenerentola, which he completed in a period of three weeks, is considered to have some of his finest writing for solo voice and ensembles. His writing is virtuosic, requiring vocal fireworks from everyone involved, alongside impeccable comic timing. 

The full title is La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo (Cinderella or Goodness Triumphant), revealing the focus of this touching work. The supernatural elements that traditionally characterize the Cinderella story  – think magic pumpkins and talking mice – are not present in this libretto. At the time, this was done for the ease of staging and production, but the result shifts the story’s focus to the power of kindness and the resilience of the human heart. In this variation of the fairy tale, the wicked stepmother is replaced by a stepfather, the “Fairy Godmother” is instead Alidoro, a philosopher and tutor to the Prince, and Cinderella is identified not by a glass slipper, but by her bracelet. 

Required listening: Nacqui all’affanno… Non più mesta, Si ritrovarla il giuro, Act II Sextet 

Cendrillon by Jules Massenet (1899)

Massenet’s Cendrillon is perhaps the most romantic take on this list, blending wit and sensitivity with tender emotion and passionate love. Massenet called Cendrillon an “Opéra féerie” – a musical fairy tale fusing song, dance and spectacle together into a fantastical, visually striking whole. The music itself plays a crucial part in establishing a magical atmosphere. Massenet uses high woodwinds, strings, and harp to create a shimmering, ethereal sound that transforms the everyday world into something more magical. 

The part of Prince Charming is what is known as a “trouser role,” a theatrical term used to denote a role which is portrayed by a performer of the opposite sex. It’s not uncommon for treble voices – typically mezzo-sopranos –  to portray male characters. Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro or Hansel in Hansel and Gretel are representative of this tradition. Massenet’s Prince was written to be sung by a Falcon soprano, a dark dramatic and characteristically French soprano voice. True Falcon sopranos are very rare, and today mezzo-sopranos typically sing the Prince. 

Required listening: Enfin, je suis ici,  Vous êtes mon prince charmant, Ah! Douce enfant (English version)

Cendrillon by Pauline Viardot (1904)

French dramatic mezzo-soprano, composer, and pedagogue, Pauline Viardot, was one of the most influential figures in French romanticism. Viardot began composing when she was young, but it was never her intention to become a composer. Her compositions were written mainly as private pieces for her students with the intention of developing their vocal abilities. However, her works were of professional quality, and Franz Liszt declared that, with Pauline Viardot, the world had “finally found a woman composer of genius.”

Between 1864 and 1874 she wrote three salon operas – Trop de femmes (1867), L’ogre (1868), and Le dernier sorcier (1869) –  and over fifty Lieder. Her remaining two salon operas – Le conte de fées (1879), and Cendrillon) – were to her own libretti. Written for a cast of seven with piano orchestration, Cendrillon premiered in Viardot’s Paris salon on 23 April 1904, when she was 83, and was published later that year. Historians are unsure of when the opera was actually composed. The plot remains relatively faithful to Perrault’s original fairy tale, but takes a much more lighthearted approach than the other operatic adaptations. The evil stepmother is replaced with a bumbling and clueless stepfather and the Fairy Godmother (La Fée) actually appears as a guest at the party and entertains the guests with a song. A full performance of the opera lasts a little over an hour

Required listening: Aria de la Fée

Cinderella by Alma Deutscher (2016)

Cinderella is the second opera from Alma Deutscher, British composer, pianist, violinist and conductor. A former child prodigy, Deutscher composed her first piano sonata at the age of five. At seven, she completed the short opera, The Sweeper of Dreams, and later wrote a violin concerto at age nine. At the age of ten, she wrote her first full-length opera, Cinderella, which had its European premiere in Vienna in 2016 under the patronage of conductor Zubin Mehta, and its U.S. premiere a year later.

Deutscher’s version deviates from the traditional story. It is set in Deutscher’s imaginary land, Transylvanian, in an opera house run by Cinderella’s stepmother. The two step-sisters are talentless would-be divas. Cinderella is a talented composer, but she is not allowed to perform and is slaved-worked as a copyist. Prince Theodore is a poet, who is mocked at court for his artistic leanings. In the first act, Cinderella chances upon a captivating love poem, which unbeknownst to her, was written by the Prince. She is inspired by the poem and sets it to music. Her beautiful melody is stolen by her step-sisters and performed at the singing competition during the royal ball, but with the wrong words. Finally, Cinderella herself sings her song to the prince with the right words, but unaware that he is the poet who wrote them. After Cinderella flees from the ball at midnight, the prince searches for her on the basis of a melody (rather than a glass slipper) – the haunting melody she sang as she fled. Eventually, the pair are united: “they find each other like lyrics find melody.”

Required listening: I Must Get Rid Of Her

Join us for a magical evening of music, comedy, and romance! La Cenerentola plays November, 8, 10, and 12 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre.