Comedy and near-tragedy are finely blended in Cendrillon in some of the most beautiful music Massenet – king of Paris’s Opéra Comique – ever wrote. His magical take on the familiar Cinderella story is a sensuous, Belle Époque fairy tale gilded with lavish orchestral textures and glittering, virtuosic vocal writing.

With it’s combination of enchanting love story and broad, burlesque comedy, Cendrillon is one of the great operatic fairy tales – a Cinderella that looks back to Charles Perrault’s original story in all it’s richness and ambiguity. Massenet’s sensuous Belle Epoque fairy tale is gilded with lavish orchestral textures and glittering vocal writing, drawing on everything from baroque dances to Wagner-inspired chromaticism to bring it’s story to colorful life, conjuring a world of infinite musical and emotional variety. Fiona Shaw’s original Tour production makes it’s Festival debut here, re-directed by Fiona Dunn and conducted by John Wilson, with a cast led by Glyndebourne favorites Danielle de Niese as Cendrillon and Kate Lindsey as her Prince. The Times called this production “a savvy modern-day makeover,” while Classical Source called it “enchanting and thought-provoking.”

 

Composer: Jules Massenet

Librettist: Henri Cain

Conductor: John Wilson

Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra

Cast Lionel Lhote, Agnes Zwierko, Eduarda Melo, Julie Pasturaud, Danielle de Niese, Nina Minasyan, Sofia Larsson, Jacquelyn Parker, Jennifer Witton, Leslie Davis, Rhiain Taylor, Lauren Easton, Kate Lindsey, Romanas Kudriasovas, Anthony Osborne, Michael Wallace, Adam Marsden, Richard Bignall, Natalia Brzezinska, Sam Carl, Andrew Davies, Jade Moffat, David Shaw, Rachel Taylor, Pamela Wilcock

Chorus Master: Aidan Oliver

Language: French

Available in DVD and Blu-ray format