"Glorious," raved the New York Times when Joyce DiDonato sang the title role of Cendrillon at the Royal Opera in 2011. "Her performance was thoroughly enchanting." Now, for the first time ever, Massenet's sumptuous take on the Cinderella story comes to the Met, with DiDonato starring in the title role. She is paired with mezzo-soprano Alice Coote in the trouser role of Prince Charming, Kathleen Kim as the Fairy Godmother, and Stephanie Blythe as the imperious Madame de la Haltière. Bertrand de Billy conducts Laurent Pelly's imaginative storybook production.
Charles Perrault's 1698 fairy tale, the classic telling of the Cinderella story, is an excellent source for an opera-providing color, romance, and relatable themes for audiences of all ages. The work includes many moments in which Massenet is at his best and most widely accessible, from the pageantry and glowing musical nostalgia for the French baroque in the court scenes to the otherworldliness of the love music to the wit and humor that permeate the work as a whole.
Perrault's originally story was published at the end of the 17th century, and the opera and its music preserve references to that era of lavish court entertainments and clear-cut distinctions of social hierarchies. It is, however, a fairy tale, and as such, it takes place in an indeterminate past in which magic, whimsy, and love at first sight are features of everyday life.
Jules Massenet's score features a preponderance of the lower female voices-including a mezzo-soprano as the object of Cendrillon's affection-that were so favored by French composers in the 19th century. The result is an otherworldly yet sensual tonal palette that serves as a rich background for this familiar tale. Against all the fairy-tale wonder of the score, the title character and her prince are recognizably human. Their Act II love duet is a masterful moment emblematic of Massenet's elegant style: The prince is lyrically effusive, while all of Cendrillon's gushing emotion is expressed in a single refined yet poignant phrase as she says "You are my Prince Charming," recalled at other points throughout the score.
World Premiere: Opéra-Comique, Paris, 1899
Charles Perrault's 1698 fairy tale, the classic telling of the Cinderella story, is an excellent source for an opera-providing color, romance, and relatable themes for audiences of all ages. The work includes many moments in which Massenet is at his best and most widely accessible, from the pageantry and glowing musical nostalgia for the French baroque in the court scenes to the otherworldliness of the love music to the wit and humor that permeate the work as a whole.
Perrault's originally story was published at the end of the 17th century, and the opera and its music preserve references to that era of lavish court entertainments and clear-cut distinctions of social hierarchies. It is, however, a fairy tale, and as such, it takes place in an indeterminate past in which magic, whimsy, and love at first sight are features of everyday life.
Jules Massenet's score features a preponderance of the lower female voices-including a mezzo-soprano as the object of Cendrillon's affection-that were so favored by French composers in the 19th century. The result is an otherworldly yet sensual tonal palette that serves as a rich background for this familiar tale. Against all the fairy-tale wonder of the score, the title character and her prince are recognizably human. Their Act II love duet is a masterful moment emblematic of Massenet's elegant style: The prince is lyrically effusive, while all of Cendrillon's gushing emotion is expressed in a single refined yet poignant phrase as she says "You are my Prince Charming," recalled at other points throughout the score.
World Premiere: Opéra-Comique, Paris, 1899