Rossini: La cenerentola

When Rossini reimagined Cinderella as a comic opera, in which goodness triumphs through song.

In late 18th-century Italy, in the mansion of Don Magnifico, the young and pretty Angelina works as a maid. Teased by her two frivolous half-sisters, Clorinda and Tisby, Angelina believes she is in love with a young valet and goes to the ball. Dressed in her finest finery, she meets the man who is in fact the Prince and flees from him after giving him a bracelet that will allow him to recognise her a little later. The masks come off, and kindness and love triumph! ‘La Cenerentola’ is the last opera buffa composed by Gioachino Rossini for an Italian audience. A dramma giocoso in two acts, with a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti, freely adapted from Charles Perrault’s fairy tale ‘Cinderella’ (1697), omitting the magic in favour of a realism tinged with humour and social criticism. Premiered for the Rome Carnival at the Teatro Valle in Rome on 28 January 1817. Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera, Lewes, East Sussex, on 2 and 4 June 2005.

Cast

Ruxandra Donose

Angelina (Cenerentola)

Luciano di Pasquale

Don Magnifico

Maxim Mironov

Prince Don Ramiro

Simone Alberghini

Dandini

Raquela Sheeran

Clorinda

Lucia Cirillo

Tisbe

Nathan Berg

Alidoro

Vladimir Jurowski

Conductor

The Glyndebourne Chorus

Chorus

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Orchestra

Bernard McDonald

Chorus Master

Pieter Schoeman

Leader