Festival Opera
La Cenerentola
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Keith Bruce
five stars
IN the specially-extended pit at the Festival Theatre, the excellent Orchestra of the Opera de Lyon gives a superb historically-informed account of some of the finest music Rossini ever wrote, under the baton of Stefano Montanari. Onstage, meanwhile, Stefan Herheim’s excellent production goes far beyond the libretto that Jacopo Ferretti supplied to serve a Cinderella that is both faithful to the work that partnership made from the Perrault fairytale, building in elements of more familiar versions of the story.
The feisty Angelina (Michele Losier), is nicknamed Cinders by her wicked and rivalrous (but not ugly) step-sisters Clorinda and Tisbe (Clara Meloni and Katherine Aitken), and treated as a skivvy by stepdad Don Magnifico (Renato Girolami). When Prince Ramiro (American tenor Taylor Stayton in two of the three performances here) comes looking for a bride, it is in disguise as his own valet, while Dandini comes dressed as the prince. The prince’s tutor Alidoro, however, has used his own ruses to establish which woman is the worthy bride, and God himself seems to be on his side, so true love will out, though its path be far from smooth.
With vast and highly mobile designs by Herheim and Daniel Unger, a catwalk regularly brings the singers out in front the musicians. The world the production creates telescopes the action from the fireplace to the proscenium arch, has a backdrop that is a nod to the Disney film fantasy, and props and bits of business that incorporate the pantomime magic Rossini and Ferretti rejected.
We are never allowed to forget that a story always depends on the storyteller, with the quill/wand/baton passed from character to character as they seek to impose their wishes on the unfolding of events. Ultimately, the decisions are in the hands of the gentlemen of the chorus of the Opera de Lyon and the conductor, who is liable to interfere with the action, and begins the second act on stage before being told to get back to his place.
Superbly sung across the board, and with Losier outstanding in the title role, it is the acting performances of the cast that make this such a glorious climax to EIF 2018.
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