Rossini: La Cenerentola
May 2006 Reviewed by: Wes Marshall Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Along with Mozart’s Don Giovanni, La Cenerentola belongs to that rarified group of serio-comic operas that actually make you laugh and feel sad, sometimes at the same time. The story of Cenerentola (Cinderella to us English speakers) is based on an old story, slightly different from Perrault's Mother Goose tales of the 17th century or the Disney film they inspired. Here, Cenerentola (pronounced CHEN-er-REN-toe-la) deals with mean sisters, but there are no fairies or pumpkins turning into coaches. Instead, we have a prince who falls in love and makes a concerted, and successful, attempt to find a woman who has beguiled him. We simply have to suffer with Cenerentola as she is abused while we are waiting for the hoped-for happy ending.

Rossini wrote La Cenerentola in 1816, and it premiered early in 1817. While the Romantics had made great headway in most of the arts, conservatives were still Classicists. Rossini was a Classicist until he died, and this is his most Mozartian of operas.

For decades, we saw little of La Cenerentola on stage because there was no good coloratura mezzo-soprano to sing the role. That all changed in October of 1995 when impresario David Gockley brought the young Cecilia Bartoli to Houston to sing the role. I was present to hear her sing, and though her voice was (and is) small, it is as perfect as an F1 diamond. She is the gold standard for Cenerentola. Would that I could say the same for Ruxandra Donose. While attractive and a good actress, she has an annoying catch in her low notes -- an area where Rossini writes regularly -- that made me want to ask her to leave the stage and clear her throat. Yet on the occasions when Rossini asks for rapid singing and a piercing high note, she comes through gorgeously.

The rest of the cast is a mixed bag vocally, though all are good actors. Cenerentola’s sisters are hilarious, as played by Raquela Sheeran and Lucia Cirillo. They have strong voices, sing beautifully, and are properly pasty and villainous. Their father, played by Luciano Di Pasquale, is sooo dirty and oily and a ham of an actor, but he is missing the power in the bottom five or six notes, which emasculates some of his biggest statements. Nathan Berg as the pretend Prince is a sheer masterpiece, lighting up the stage at every moment and singing with power and precision. But the Prince, Maxim Mironov, is prettier than any of the women on the stage, and has a high tenor to boot, making him hard to take as a hero.

If it sounds like I’m carping too much for the rating I have given, it’s because the sum is much greater than the parts. Thank veteran director Sir Peter Hall, whose attention to artistic detail has yielded a production of uncommon beauty and frequent belly laughs. Thanks also to conductor Vladimir Jurowski. Listen to how he knits the ensemble together in the first act finale. The sounds, the tempos, and the dynamics are so perfect, I am sure they would have sent Rossini swooning if he were alive today. Most of all, thank Gioacchino Rossini for some of the most beguiling music ever written.

Opus Arte has offered a clear picture with just slightly busy camera work and demonstration-quality sound through the DTS channels. The one extra is an illuminating half-hour discussion with Hall and Jurowski that would appear paltry on a Hollywood movie, but in terms of what we normally get on an opera DVD, it’s like being given a reasonable facsimile of the Ten Commandments to go along with the Bible.

For fans, this should be on the list along with the Bartoli DVD. Forced to choose one, I would probably recommend this one for its great ensemble feel, truthful sound, and insightful discussion.

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