Cendrillon at the Lyric Opera

The Lyric offered up a solid production of Cendrillon, French composer Massenet’s version of the Cinderella story.  This is the opera’s first showing at the Lyric in its 64 seasons, although it has offered up Rossini’s variation on the theme, La Cenerentola, no less than six times.  Massenet’s version is half comedy (awfully slapstick in this production) and half drama, and he gives Cinderella’s father a sizeable role.  Although the story line for the most part is an operatic version of a chick flick, there are a few worthwhile moments.  Particularly of interest, and the highlight for me, is the serious, touching Act III scene between Cinderella and her father, as she despairs of ever again seeing her magical love Prince Charming. 

In popularity Cendrillon does not rank with Massenet’s main four – Manon and Werther, followed by Don Quichotte and Thais.  The Prince is a “trouser” role, written for a contralto and featuring a mezzo in this production; for me, the opera would be more appealing if the part were transposed for a tenor.  

Soprano Siobhan Stagg was terrific in the title role in her American debut, and I also particularly enjoyed bass-baritone Derek Welton as her meek but gentle and caring father.  Sets consisted of various moving panels with writing on them – inexpensive, minimalist, and very uninteresting.  I know opera companies are struggling with cost control, but this was a pretty lame effort.  The show was almost a concert version in costume.  The blame for the set, though, gets spread around to many other opera companies, so the Lyric is mostly off the hook.  Hell, even the Met used it.

I’m happy to have seen Cendrillon, though I don’t think I would go out of my way to see it again.  If an opera company is going through the expense of putting on a show, there are a lot more appealing choices on the list before you come to Cendrillon.  The set was available, sure, but sets abound.  And it’s not as if a packaged cast, already rehearsed, was readily available, for only Alice Coote as Prince Charming was a carry-over from last spring’s production at the Met.  So here are two picks, for example, that jump to mind long before Cendrillon – Puccini’s sleeper Manon Lescaut, last seen on the Lyric stage 13 years ago and just that once since 1977, and even Massenet’s own take on that story, Manon, regarded by some as his best opera and last seen at the Lyric in 1983 – 35 years ago.

R Balsamo