What to Expect from La Cenerentola
The premise is simple: a young woman is denigrated by her own family but ultimately exalted by a prince who sees her true value. Rossini’s operatic version of the Cinderella tale (“Cenerentola” in Italian) is charming, beautiful, touching in parts, and dramatically convincing. Hot on the heels of her triumphant Met debut as Rosina in last season’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Elīna Garanča portrays another Rossini charmer in this bel canto Cinderella story.
The name may bring to mind an animated cartoon or a child’s bedtime reading, but the Cinderella story is as close as we have to a cultural universal. Long before global marketing, dozens and dozens of versions of the story were told all across the planet. (One was recorded in China more than a thousand years ago!) But every interpretation, from the Brothers Grimm to Rodgers and Hammerstein, is different, and La Cenerentola is no exception.
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Two full-length activities, designed to support your ongoing curriculum.
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Three "Musical Highlights" designed to focus briefly on bits of music from
La Cenerentola to cultivate familiarity with the work.
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Performance Activities for students to enjoy during the Metropolitan Opera HD transmission.
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A post-transmission activity, integrating the Live in HD experience into students' wider views of the performing arts.
Propelled by soaring melodies, laced with humor both subtle and broad, La Cenerentola is an opera for all ages—but it’s no fairy tale. In fact, Rossini and his librettist, Jacopo Ferretti, managed to tell the tale without a hint of magic. This is a Cinderella for the Age of Reason. No mice turn into coachmen. No pumpkin turns into a coach. There’s no fairy godmother. And, as your students will discover, there’s not even a telltale glass slipper.
The story is less about magic and more about human nature. The opera, as a result, transcends its roots as a children’s tale in its humane and realistic approach, making the title heroine’s transformation one of character rather than stereotype. It gives its prince genuine reason to fall in love with Cinderella—and unlike some more familiar versions, it makes Cinderella an agent of her own fate. The Met: Live in HD transmission will bring your students all the comedy, pathos, and beauty of Rossini’s work. This guide is designed to enrich their enjoyment of La Cenerentola and to help them look beyond the great fun to what proves, deceptively, to be an opera of ideas.
The synopsis can be found here.