Bitter-sweet comedy of manners, happy-ever-after romance, or a serious moral tale, Rossini’s 1817 stage work is open to various interpretative slants, some even sinisterly dark. But, however you pigeon-hole this rags to riches fantasy, Hurn Court Opera’s newly minted La Cenerentola made abundantly clear it’s a comic fairy tale, though not entirely without gravitas. On opening night at Winchester’s Theatre Royal, this new production was endowed with feisty and clearly defined performances with the young cast revelling in Rossini’s irrepressible music and the knockabout humour, its clear-sighted direction shaped by Joy Robinson. Many of the singers, on the threshold of their careers, were encountering the opera for the first time, but were fully in command of their roles and the drama unfolded with a naturalism that belied the comic follies.
Designer Michael Hart makes the best of limited stage facilities and opts for a reversable set that conjures the straightened circumstances of Don Magnifico’s family (a cheerless fireplace, two drab uprights and a couple of chairs) and the palatial residence of Prince Ramiro suggested by a profusion of climbing roses. You were never going to see any glass slippers or a pumpkin coach drawn by mice, but any disappointment there was relieved by the sumptuous Regency costumes (in collaboration with Arts University Bournemouth) and the hilarious sight of two chorus members feigning a horse in charge of two spinning umbrellas as carriage wheels, the whole redolent of panto. Those umbrellas were put to comic effect in Act Two’s storm scene, admirably played by 14 instrumentalists, although the reduced orchestration (courtesy of Jonathan Lyness) was never going to reach gale force proportions.
But there was no denying larger-than-life portrayals pointing up the social distinctions outlined in Jacopo Ferretti’s libretti drawn from Charles Perrault’s tale Cendrillon. Not for nothing is the opera subtitled “Goodness Triumphant”, already telling us that the put-upon servant girl will marry her prince charming. We never know if she lives happily ever after, but the implication is clear; virtue is rewarded. This message is built around a Cinderella here of some substance, with Leila Zanette in the title role moving from a timid, dowdy drudge wielding a broomstick to a graceful and dignified presence at ease with her new marital status. On the way, she finds suitable melancholic expression in her opening folk ballad to feats of virtuosity in impassioned coloratura, with the pyrotechnics of her closing “Non più mesta” negotiated with great agility.
She fashioned a believable partnership with James Beddoe as the dashing Ramiro, equally at home in his roles as servant and earnest prince. While his lyric tenor may not quite have had the vocal elasticity of his bride to be, he exhibited security of line, charming the ear in his duet “Un soave non so che”. There was convincing chemistry too with Stephen Whitford as a flamboyant Dandini, a natural cockscomb who had a high old time with his deceptions, prompting a genuine sense of pathos when accepting his sudden return as a valet. His pouting was superbly delivered. He maintained a strong rapport with the fawning Don Magnifico, a strutting and sycophantic Samuel Lom whose ambitions for social advancement were topped by a determination to have unfettered access to the palace wine cellar. His sizeable baritone made short work of patter songs, all sung with evident delight, and furnished a fine duet with Whitford in “Un segreto d’importanza”.
The Don’s two daughters, Clorinda (Persha Darling) and Tisbe (Cicely Hé) were a vibrantly matched pair of weathercocks and delivered well-prepared routines as petulant siblings, their snobbery and sense of entitlement suitably outlandish, and narrowly avoiding caricature. Not least among the principals was the rich baritone of Aaron Holmes as the benevolent Alidoro, a kind of fairy godfather without a wand who watches over Ramiro and Cinderella. Elsewhere, ensemble numbers were impressively controlled between the soloists, and spirited contributions from the chorus added bags of energy. In the pit, Lynton Atkinson and the Hurn Court Orchestra illuminated the score’s buoyancy and exhilaration to underpin an entertaining evening of astute comedy and accomplished singing.
David Truslove
La Cenerentola
Comic opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini, sung in Italian with English surtitles by Simon Rees and performed in a reduced orchestral version by Jonathan Lyness
Libretto by Jacopo Ferretti
Cast and production staff:
Cinderella (Angelina) – Leila Zanette; Prince Ramiro – James Beddoe; Dandini – Stephen Whitford; Don Magnifico – Samuel Lom; Clorinda – Persha Darling; Tisbe – Cicely Hé; Alidoro – Aaron Holmes; Director & Lighting – Joy Robinson, Set Design – Michael Hart; Costumes – students from Arts University Bournemouth; Hurn Court Opera Orchestra; Musical Director – Lynton Atkinson.
Theatre Royal, Winchester, Hampshire, 14 April 2025
Photos: © Hurn Court Opera