Conductor: John Wilson
Stage director: Fiona Shaw
Film director: François Roussillon
Cast:
Cendrillon: Danielle de Niese
Fairy Godmother: Nina Minasyan
Prince Charming: Kate Lindsey
Stepmother (Madame de la Haltière): Agnes Zwierko
(not on IMDb)
Even though I signed up for emails from Glyndebourne, it was my calendar tickler from last year that pointed me toward seeing this online:
https://www.glyndebourne.com/events/watch-cinderella/
https://youtu.be/BlkvvBQj1lQ
The video is from yesterday's live broadcast, and includes a 20 min intermission with no content. Next viewing, skip to the end of that using the big countdown clock onscreen. After that countdown is when we get the backstage featurette.
This is the story where the father is still living, and stands by helplessly while Cinderella is treated as a servant. In this production, the house is full of servants, but Cindy gets the plum assignment of scrubbing the floors.
This opera may need another watch. They seem to have played with the story a bit, because I got confused about the sequence of events. After Cinderella dons her ballgown, we see her in her rags again (at the ball?), and she switches back into the gown, still at the palace. The story does include a sequence where her father almost convinces her the whole thing was a dream, so perhaps this team was expanding on that early in the show.
Another thing to watch for in a second viewing: is the prince also a household servant in a dress? S/he is presented that way during the scene where the father tries to enforce the dream concept, AND when shoe fits. Per a backstage discussion, they might have been trying to capitalize on the trouser role to make a same-sex statement. But that character is called the Prince, and the women who come to the ball to court him (and later wanting to try the shoe) are called Princesses.
Nice, but happy to have the Met production, which is brightly lit (not so this production), and doesn't insert any confusing extras that I saw here.
GlyndebourneOpera, cond. Wilson; 7+
