CINDERELLA IN HIGH HEELS

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS
cendrillon
Of Massenet’s three-dozen operas Cendrillon does no deserve to be the neglected stepsister of Manon and Werther. Its composer had been in the operatic trenches of French opera and its intrigues for thirty-four grueling years when he  composed and premiered this version of Perrault’s Cinderella in 1899. Jules Massenet knew how to write an opera.
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The newly refurbished Salle Favart of the Opéra-Comique hosted the premiere production, a high tech affair for its time that included all kinds of special effects and electric lighting. The works had been perfected after a rehearsal period that went on for three months.
Massenet outdid himself creating lovely music for a sizeable cast of eleven principals and a singing and dancing ensemble of courtiers, lords and ladies, princesses, dewdrops and disembodied spirits.
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The story is the familiar one: there’s two ugly stepsisters, a horrendous stepmother, the lovely Cinderella, a Prince in search of his Princess. There’s a Fairy Godmother and a happy ending. There’s a lost high-heel shoe and a nifty scooter, rather than a slipper and a horse-drawn coach in CCM’s modern-dress production.
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On stage at CCM, you can be sure, there will be plenty of good-looking young singers who can both look and sing the parts.You can also expect great things from the CCM production team.
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Save the dates: November 17 and 19 at 8 pm and November 20 at 2 pm. Tickets: 513-556-4183.

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”