La Cenerentola (Not Cinderella) at Seattle Opera

Few opera composers are as well-loved (especially at my house) as Rossini, and everyone loves a fairy tale. Rossini’s opera is actually named La Cenerentola, which is a mouthful. If it’s easier, he also called it Goodness Triumphant. But it’s a good idea to use one of these names rather than the more familiar one, because Rossini’s Cinderella is not Disney’s Cinderella. And the “long ago in a land far away” of Seattle Opera’s Cenerentola is Dickensian London.

Cinderella

Say the name Cinderella to most people, and they will instantly picture pumpkins and singing mice. But there are literally hundreds of versions of Cinderella around the world. The only constants are a virtuous young woman, a helper, and a device by which she is recognized by the man bearing her HEA (that’s “happily ever after” in Bookish).

Cinderella can be kind of a hard sell to modern audiences, since the idea that a young woman’s HEA depends on marriage has worn pretty thin. Plus, most of the versions familiar to American audiences can be reduced to “ story about a dress” and propaganda for capitalism.  

Although it has some flaws of its own, La Cenerentola is not quite the same puff-piece. This story is less about the dress and more about Cinderella’s good character.

Goodness Triumphant

La Cenerentola is not Rossini’s best work. The opera was famously slapped together in a couple weeks, relying heavily on borrowed elements and recycled music. (At one point, my friend and I turned to each asking, “Wasn’t this chorus in Italian Girl, too?”)

Rossini’s librettist, Jacopo Ferretti, lifted his Cinderella story from a play by Charles Guillaume Éttienne. This story doesn’t have any pumpkin chariots or fairy godmother – or any magic at all. Instead, the prince’s tutor discovers Cinderella working like a servant in the home of her drunken, abusive stepfather and orchestrates her transformation into royal marriage material. “The prince,” Don Ramiro, wants a woman who loves him and not his title. So in time-tested theatrical fashion, he trades places with his servant, Dandini, and they test the sincerity of the women of Cinderella’s household.

Tonal Shift

The story is 200 years old, so it’s best not to look too closely at the details or question the morality too closely. Today, Cinderella’s “goodness” borders on plain weird, given the circumstances. It’s better to be satisfied with the basic idea that good people get happy endings and mean ones never win and leave it at that. Because La Cenerentola suffers more from sloppy writing than from dated values.

Aside from all the assorted plot holes that plague operas of that era, La Cenerentola just can’t make up its mind about tone. At its best, it’s a hilarious comedy. There are lots of funny bits, from the slapstick (baby dolls flying through air, bearded housemaids {see below}) to the character-driven. Pretty much everything barihunk Jonathan Michie does is funny. Cinderella and her prince don’t have a meet-cute exactly, but it’s pretty cute when they meet, with awkward rom-com funniness.

But there’s nothing funny about the physical abuse Cinderella suffers. Her relatives frequently cross over from petty and ridiculous into genuine cruelty. Some of the songs and scenes are genuine and heartfelt, others veer into slapstick. A viewer could get emotional whiplash, or worse, be pulled out of the story.

Production

The story of Cinderella gives plenty of fodder for feminist criticism, but its production is certainly cause for celebration. Seattle is one of only two major US opera companies headed by a woman, and the director, another woman, is coming following up a Rigoletto colored by #MeToo. In Lindy Hume’s hands, what little substance the flimsy story may have is brought to the fore. Cinderella succeeds not through magic or beauty, but through strength of character. There’s even an intriguing moment at the end when Dandini, having once tasted power in the guise of his boss, tosses his coat over his shoulder, picks up a suitcase, and walks away from servitude.

Charles Dickens’ London might seem like an odd setting for a fairy tale, but it actually makes sense. Nobody does “mistreated orphan makes good” better than Dickens. And there are fun points of connection, like Six Degrees of Cenerentola. Hume is from Australia; the first opera performed in Australia was Cenerentola; in the same year Queen Victoria had her fairy tale wedding in London; the same year Dickens began publishing The Old Curiosity Shop; which is the type of shop where Cinderella lives in this production.

Performance

But Rossini is a poster boy for bel canto for a reason, and La Cenerentola still offers some wonderful arias. After her amazing performance as Carmen, I was looking forward to hearing Ginger Costa-Jackson perform Cinderella. But I ended up attending Wallis Giunta’s Seattle Opera debut performance – and now I’ve got another favorite mezzo. Her voice was bold, rich, and thoroughly satisfying, giving substance to what has got to be Rossini’s weakest spunky heroine.

I did see another Costa-Jackson, though. Ginger’s sister, Miriam, was the evil stepsister Clorinda in a fearsome duo with Maya Gour as Tisbe (who does the splits! When have you ever seen an opera singer do the splits?).

Matthew Grills’ voice reminded me a bit of Andrew Owens, and like Owens, he also brought as much to the acting as the singing, especially in the comic bits.

Happily for me, there was a lot music for the lower voices. Baritone Jonathan Michie as Dandini almost had a larger role than the prince (and certainly a funnier one). La Cenerentola even has two basses playing opposite roles as Cinderella’s oppressor and rescuer. Peter Kalman was a despicable – yet very funny – Don Magnifico with his pun-filled ode to alcohol; an almost unrecognizable Andy Lau in top hat and mustache, as the beneficent tutor gets to transform Cinderella a piece of music quite a bit better than “bibbity bobbity boo.”  

Chorus Line

The year Cenerentola was written, the theater it was written for only had a male chorus. Since an all-male London makes no sense at all, Hume put male and female characters in the chorus. But since all the chorus parts were written for male voices, the singers are still male. Thus we get the double delight of a low chorus and housemaids with beards. Win-win.

Cast

The cast I saw is listed in bold type.

Cinderella
Ginger Costa-Jackson (Oct. 19, 25, 27, & Nov. 1)
Wallis Giunta* (Oct. 20, 23, 26, & 30)

Don Ramiro
Michele Angelini* (Oct. 19, 25, 27, & Nov. 1)
Matthew Grills (Oct. 20, 23, 26, & 30)

Dandini  
Joo Won Kang (Oct. 19, 25, 27, & Nov. 1)
Jonathan Michie* (Oct. 20, 23, 26, & 30)

Don Magnifico     
Peter Kalman*

Clorinda    
Miriam Costa-Jackson*

Tisbe   
Maya Gour*

Alidoro          
Adam Lau

Conductor 
Gary Thor Wedow 

Director  
Lindy Hume

Production Designer     
Dan Potra             

* Company Debut

 Opera Details

Music by Gioacchino Rossini
Libretto by Jacopo Ferretti
In Italian with English captions
Premiere: Teatro Valle, Rome, Italy, January 25, 1817
Previous Seattle Opera Performances: 1977, 1996, 2013
Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
Remaining Performances: Oct. 23, 25, 26, 27, 30 & Nov. 1, 2019
Approximate Running Time: 2 hours, 55 minutes including one intermission
Evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m., Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.

Buy tickets here.