Cendrillon

Cendrillon
Boulder Opera
Stewart Auditorium
Longmont, CO
December 3-8, 2017

Cendrillon is an opera based on the Cinderella story. It is not as well known as the Rossini version La Cenerentola. The Boulder Opera production gave audiences a look at this lesser performed work. Unlike the Rossini version, this one fully embraced the fairy tale nature of the story by including the fairy godmother and two fairy sprites to help her.

The fairy godmother’s arias were quite impressive. There were hints of the Queen of the Night in her songs, but they were perfect in the context of the magical happenings around her. The sprites were an enjoyable addition. The performers appeared to throughly enjoy the magic and mischief they provided to the story. The addition of a handful of girls from the audience during one of the fairy godmother’s scene was distracting.

The stepsisters were also fun to watch. Their reactions and preening were so funny that occasionally they took the focus off of the action in the story.

The oddest part of this opera is that the role of the Prince was written for a soprano, meaning it must be played by a woman. This was awkward at best. While the singer did her best to appear as a man, it wasn’t convincing. And in the duets with Cinderella, it was difficult to distinguish Cinderella’s part from the prince.

The set was fairly bland and simple. However, the elaborate costumes made up for much of that. Nothing was more stunning than Cinderella’s voluminous ball gown.

I was surprised that despite that the show was part of their Family series the opera was performed in French. The biggest issue with the production was the subtitles. They were projected at the back of the stage. While they were easy to read, it meant the children who cannot read yet were left to rely on their parents to read to them. But, as it turned out, the subtitles were poorly set up, at times there were typos in them. Frequently the translation for hopelessly behind the action. For the final scene, they completely gave up on them, leaving the audience to guess at what was happening.

Despite the difficulties, the audience seemed charmed with the show. As an additional treat, all of the performers appeared in the lobby for meet and greets after the show.