BY KAREN BOSSICK
The classic telling of the Cinderella story will close out the 2017-18 season of MET HD: Live today—Saturday, April 28.
Charles Perrault’s 1698 fairy tale “Cendrillon,” complete with Prince Charming and a Fairy Godmother, will take to the screen at 11 a.m. Doors will open at 10 a.m. and Dick Brown will provide a lecture at 10:30 a.m.
“Another year down and what a year it was!” said Mary Jo Helmeke, executive director of Sun Valley Opera, which partners with Big Wood Cinemas to bring the productions to Sun Valley audiences.
The opera by Jules Massenet with libretto by Henri Cain provides pageantry, color, romance and humor. It pays tribute to French baroque and features a preponderance of lower female voices, including a mezzo-soprano as the object of Cendrillon’s affection.
The result is an otherworldly, yet sensual tonal palette.
The opera, which premiered in 1899 in Paris, opens in a storybook kingdom as Madame de la Haltiere, an imperious countess, prepares herself and her daughters for a ball to be given at the Court that evening. Her husband, a country gentleman, bemoans his lot, having married a nagging wife who treats his own daughter badly.
Madame refuses to let her stepdaughter Cendrillon attend the festivities. But Cendrillon’s Fairy Godmother has other ideas and conjures for Cendrillon a coach, horses, a beautiful gown and glass slippers that will prevent her family from recognizing her.
The only caveat is that she must leave the ball before midnight.
The Prince immediately falls in love with Cendrillon and she with him. But she must scurry away before revealing her identity and so the search is on for the young woman with the glass slippers.
The opera stars Alice Coote in the trouser role of Prince Charming, Kathleen Kim as the Fairy Godmother and Stephanie Blythe as the imperious countess Madame de la Haltiere.
Bertrand de Billy conducts Laurent Pelly’s storybook production.
The opera runs for three hours. Tickets are $16. Students can see the production for free by calling Helmeke at 208-720-5584.