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Cinderella
March 19 @ 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
$20
Piedmont Opera and Arbor Acres will present a fairy tale for the whole family, Cinderella. Instead of a stepmother, this story has a foolish baron and his two vain daughters, both after the Prince. Marie, who they call “Cinderella,” is left behind as they all accept an invitation to the Prince’s Ball. Hearing her sad song, her fairy godmother appears and promises to make Cinderella’s dreams come true. A mysterious stranger appears at the ball, and she and the Prince fall in love at first sight, but will he be able to find her again when she runs away at midnight?
Tickets here.
Pauline Viardot’s Cinderella is a re-telling of the well-known fairy tale, composed in an operetta style that combines musical numbers and dialogue. Madame Viardot wrote it to be performed by her voice students in her Parisian salon. Now, it will be live-streamed to yours! Cinderella will have two, virtual performances: Friday, March 19 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 21 at 2:00 p.m.
We don’t want to shatter the glass slipper, but we are shattering the glass ceiling, as we proudly announce that this is the first opera composed by a woman that the company has produced.
Cast & Creative
Cinderella Alicia Reid
Fairy Godmother Julia Laird
Prince Charming Jacob Wright
Count Barigoule Kameron Alston
Baron de Pictordu/stepfather Scott MacLeod
Maguelonne Laura Hutchins
Armelinde Brennan Martinez
Synopsis
Cendrillon (Cinderella) is a chamber operetta with dialogue in three acts by Pauline Viardot based on the story of Cinderella. The work, for a cast of seven with piano orchestration, premiered in Viardot’s Paris salon on 23 April 1904, when she was 83, and was published later that year. Historians are unsure of when the opera was composed, although it is thought to be after the death of Viardot’s friend (and possibly her lover) Ivan Turgenev in 1883 as he did not write the libretto. It has been described as “a retelling of the Cinderella story with Gallic wit, Italianate bel canto, and a quirkiness all her [Viardot’s] own.”
The plot remains relatively faithful to Perrault’s original fairy tale, but takes a much more lighthearted approach than the other operatic adaptations by Massenet, Rossini and Isouard. The evil stepmother is replaced with a bumbling and clueless stepfather and the Fairy Godmother (La Fée) actually appears as a guest at the party and entertains the guests with a song. A full performance of the opera lasts a little over an hour.
