Composer: Gioachino Rossini<\/b><\/p>\n
Libretto: Christopher Cowell, based on the original by Jacopo Ferretti<\/b><\/p>\n
Director: Julia Burbach<\/b>
The last time the West End played host to an updated, modern-day take on Cinderella, it did not go well. It wasn\u2019t that Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s vision of the story was bad as such, although Emerald Fennell\u2019s limp book didn\u2019t help. Still, it certainly didn\u2019t feel like the composer at his best, and there certainly wasn\u2019t enough to justify extracting the story from the stranglehold Britain\u2019s pantomime industry has on the story.<\/p>\n
English National Opera ought to feel on firmer ground with La Cenerentola, marketed here in line with ENO\u2019s English language policy under the Anglicised Cinderella. Gioachino Rossini\u2019s two-act opera may not have been the first to bring Perrault\u2019s folk tale to the stage, but it is one of its most enduring.<\/p>\n
Director Julia Burbach, set designer Herbert Murauer and costume designer Sussie Juhlin-Wall\u00e9n have reimagined the story in the present day, turning sisters Clorinda and Tisbe (Isabelle Peters and Grace Durham) into a pair of Insta-loving party girls who disparage their orphaned step-sibling, Deepa Johnny\u2019s Cinderella, at every opportunity. Cinders is part cleaner, part personal assistant, but she remains the only one who is moderately civil to the Amazon-style delivery driver who delivers parcel after parcel of dresses and shoes to the family home.<\/p>\n
Of course, that driver is actually someone in disguise. David Ireland\u2019s Alidoro, who takes up the scheming\/helpful role that later gets ascribed to a fairy godmother, is imbued with some of that supernatural element here: he has an entourage of mice helpers (children in what appear to be Bagpuss-inspired headpieces) and frequently hangs about with the ghost of Cinderella\u2019s dead mother (dancer Sarah Storer).<\/p>\n
The mother plays no role in the story other than looking wistful and occasionally moving the walls of Muraruer\u2019s beautifully 1960s, dual-level modernist set. But her continued presence does provoke one to wonder what she could have seen in Simon Bailey\u2019s Don Magnifico, who is every bit as dreadful as his daughters.<\/p>\n
Through this chaotic family, Aaron Godfrey-Mayes\u2019s prince, Don Ramiro, strides in and makes it obvious why he is the perfect match for Johnny\u2019s kind, forgiving Cinderella. Even when egged on by the 18-strong chorus \u2013 here represented as spirits of his ancestors from the ages, scarlet-clad and mischievous, like a couture version of the BBC sitcom Ghosts \u2013 Godfrey-Mayes exudes calm gentility. Even at the end, as he vows revenge on Don Magnifico\u2019s family for the way they have treated Cinderella, one never really feels his heart is in it.<\/p>\n
At times, that placidity does also come out in a quieter voice that tends to get lost in some of the opera\u2019s more frenetic ensemble numbers. Such moments are not helped by Christopher Cowell\u2019s libretto, which often struggles to combine his love for torturous rhymes with the swift polysyllabic requirements of Rossini\u2019s fast-paced melodies. All too often, the cast find themselves tripping over the lines to make them fit the pace of the score; this is far from the fault of conductor Yi-Chen Lin, whose command of her orchestra becomes the opera\u2019s high point.<\/p>\n
It is only until Act II, when both Godfrey-Mayes and Johnny get the opportunity to be quieter, slower and more reflective, that we see the charm of Rossini\u2019s source material be truly matched by the potential of this staging.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say the rest is rotten \u2013 indeed, as an introduction to opera for younger people, this production of Cinderella has much to offer it. But the world that has sprouted from Burbach\u2019s imagination does not quite do Rossini justice. This retelling of the classic fairy tale is far better musically than Lloyd Webber\u2019s attempt. Still, everything else is a little too chaotic and muddled for this production of La Cenerentola to become a classic of the ENO repertoire.<\/p>\n
Runs until 14 October 2025<\/b>
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