Gioachino Rossini’s “La Cenerentola,” the composer’s famous opera based on Charles Perrault iconic fairy-tale, will enjoy a run at the Metropolitan Opera, April 21 through May 10. The cast features mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in her first Met performance of the lead role, and tenors Juan Diego Flórez and Javier Camarena (whom the New York Times recently said is “as close to a rock star as the Met has produced from its male roster this season”) doubling up as Prince Charming, with Met principal conductor Fabio Luisi at the podium.
“La Cenerentola,” with a libretto written by Jacopo Ferretti, was Rossini’s follow-up to the successful “Barber of Seville” in 1816. It was first performed at Rome’s Teatro Valle in January 1817, where audiences and critics alike panned it. Rossini reportedly set the music to the libretto in a mere 24 days, essentially writing music at the same time as verses, which led some, including Ferretti himself, to feel that the opera is mediocre and rushed.
NPR has called“La Cenerentola” one of Rossini’s most humorous operas, “but with a serious side to remind us that the happy ending to Cinderella’s story wasn’t just a gift from some benevolent fairy.”
