Gioachino Rossini

La Cenerentola

This production ran: Apr 3 - Apr 3

This production is in the past.

Overview

All remaining performances in the 2019–20 season have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Click here to learn more.

Rossini’s effervescent take on the Cinderella story returns, with rising star mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught in the title role and tenor sensation Javier Camarena as her Prince Charming. James Gaffigan conducts the lively action, which also features bass-baritone Maurizio Muraro as the bumbling Don Magnifico, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the benevolent Alidoro, and baritone Vito Priante as the wily servant Dandini.

Production a gift of Alberto Vilar

Languages

Languages sung in La Cenerentola

Sung In

Italian

Titles

Title languages displayed for La Cenerentola

Met Titles In

  • English
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Italian

Timeline

Timeline for the show, La Cenerentola

Estimated Run Time

3 hrs 10 mins

  • House Opens

  • Act I

    100 mins

  • Intermission

    30 mins

  • Act II

    60 mins

  • Opera Ends

La Cenerentola

World Premiere: Teatro Valle, Rome, 1817. The story 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, transcending its roots as a children’s fairytale and making the title heroine’s transformation one of character rather than stereotype.

Creators

Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) was the world’s foremost opera composer in his day. Over the course of just two decades, he created more than 30 works, both comic and tragic, before inexplicably stopping opera composition in 1829, at the age of 37. Jacopo Ferretti (1784–1852), a poet who also supplied libretti for Donizetti and other composers, provided the text for La Cenerentola, adapting the classic fairy tale by author Charles Perrault (1628–1703).

PRODUCTION

Cesare Lievi

SET AND COSTUMER DESIGNER

Maurizio Balò

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Gigi Saccomandi

CHOREOGRAPHER

Daniela Schiavone

Headshot of Gioachino Rossini

Composer

Gioachino Rossini

Videos

Setting

La Cenerentola

Unlike most other versions, the opera places the story in a real locale, with the prince not a generic Prince Charming, but the prince of Salerno, an ancient seaside town in southern Italy.

Music

The score of La Cenerentola seethes with the elegant buoyancy that is the hallmark of Rossini’s style. The solo parts require astounding vocal abilities, though the pyrotechnics always serve a larger dramatic purpose. Great comedy, an area in which the composer stands supreme, also runs throughout the score.

La Cenerentola