# Which Cinderella Do You Prefer



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

This is not about particular performances but about two different composer's operas: Massenet's Cendrillon (a "fairy tale"—in four acts) and Rossini's La Cenerentola (operatic playful drama in two acts). Note that Massenet more closely followed the fairy tale Cinderella, whereas Rossini deleted all the fairies and magic, and even got rid of the glass slipper (used a bracelet instead).

My favorite by far is Rossini's La Cenerentola because it is distanced from the fair tail. I have both on CD and prefer Rossini's music also, but both are good, and there are great arias on both.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I also prefer Rossini's.

Of course, there are other "Cinderellas" out there, I have a soft spot for Pauline Viardot-García's _Cendrillon_:


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Rossini's _Cenerentola_ has incredible music, but as adaptation of the original it's as worthless as his _Otello_. Maybe even more.


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## JohnGerald (Jul 6, 2014)

Aramis said:


> Rossini's _Cenerentola_ has incredible music, but as adaptation of the original it's as worthless as his _Otello_. Maybe even more.


I prefer the Rossini version, too. I have both on DVD (three Cenerentola's, in fact) but have watched Cendrillon once, and probably will not again. Rossini's version is a high energy piece of theatre; Massenet's is less so.

I do take issue, respectfully, with the statement that Rossini's Otello is "worthless". It was very popular in Europe until Verdi composed Otello. If evaluating it for conformity with Shakespeare is the criterea, then, of course it does not. But as opera, as music theatre, it works quite well and there is some very fine music in it


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

JohnGerald said:


> I do take issue, respectfully, with the statement that Rossini's Otello is "worthless". It was very popular in Europe until Verdi composed Otello. If evaluating it for conformity with Shakespeare is the criterea, then, of course it does not. But as opera, as music theatre, it works quite well and there is some very fine music in it


That's why I said "as adaptation of the original", the music is very far from worthless. All the affront is for the librettists, not Rossini... though maybe he earned it in part too, by not caring about quality of the text that much.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

schigolch said:


> Of course, there are other "Cinderellas" out there, I have a soft spot for Pauline Viardot-García's _Cendrillon_:


others include:
Cendrillon (1749) by Jean-Louis Laruette
Cendrillon (1810) by Nicolas Isouard, libretto by Charles-Guillaume Étienne
Agatina o La virtù premiata (1814) by Stefano Pavesi
La Cenerentola (1817) by Gioachino Rossini
Aschenbrödel (1878) by Ferdinand Langer
Cendrillon (1894-5) by Jules Massenet, libretto by Henri Caïn
Cinderella (1901-2) by Gustav Holst
La Cenerentola (1902) by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
Cendrillon (1904) by Pauline García-Viardot
Aschenbrödel (1905) by Leo Blech, libretto by Richard Batka
La Cenicienta (1966) by Jorge Peña Hen
Cinderella, a "pantomime opera" (1979) by Peter Maxwell Davies
Cinderella (1893) by Baron Boris Vietinghoff-Scheel
Aschenbrödel (1901) by Johann Strauss II, adapted and completed by Josef Bayer
Das Märchen vom Aschenbrödel (1941) by Frank Martin
Soluschka or Cinderella (1945) by Sergei Prokofiev
Cinderella (1980) by Paul Reade
My First Cinderella (2013) directed by George Williamson and Loipa Araújo
Cinderella (2013), adapted by Christopher Wheeldon, with puppetry by Basil Twist, set to the Prokofiev score[11]

my favourite is this one - Kopciuszek in Polish is Black Redstart


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

My favourite is Prokofiev's Золушка / Cinderella op. 87


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Well, the Rossini version is my favorite opera, so I voted for that. It's a bit unfair, though, because I've never heard the Massenet (but would like to).


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## sadams (Dec 27, 2014)

In about a month or so we can add another opera based on Cinderella it's by Alma Deutscher. It will be premiered on 16-July-2015 in Isreal. here is a YouTube video of a duet from it:


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

Well I have only heard Rossini's, but I really liked it so


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I have been fortunate enough to have seen both. For its infectious and witty music I prefer the Rossini.

It's an opera that sparkles!

N.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

As I don't like Massenet but find La Cenerentola delightful, it's Rossini all the way for me!

Does it matter if fiction doesn't follow fiction?


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

How about the Prokofiev ballet? The part where the clock strikes 12 is one of my favorite bits of music


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