Composer: Rossini
Director: Guido Martin-Brandis
Opera Kipling’s new production of La Cenerentola, the story of Cinderella, is a delight, even with the company incomplete: tenor Robert Tilson as Don Ramiro, the Prince Charming role, having lost his voice, manfully speaks his part in a whisper. Somehow the rest of the ensemble work around this. Rossini’s music for La Cenerentola is glorious and instantly accessible. The singing of the small ensemble is lively and appealing. Mezzo Karima El Demedasch is dazzling as Angelina, the Cinderella character, her gorgeous rich voice and sheer stage presence are simply mesmerising.
Rossini wrote his romp of a comic opera when he was 25. Director Guido Martin-Brandis’s decision to set it in the Day-Glo world of the 1970s and 80s works very well. Abba’s Waterloo is playing when we enter the auditorium and other 80s favourites are played at the interval. The costumes are a treat. Cinderella’s nasty stepsisters, Clorinda and Tisbe, are all leg-warmers and scary make-up, while Dandini, the Prince’s valet, sports a John Travolta suit and sharp shoes. There are lots of other witty touches. Clorinda makes her first entrance wobbling on roller skates; greedy Don Magnifico shouts into one of those brick-like early mobile phones. And you can’t take your eyes off Grace Lovelace as younger evil sister Tisbe, so perfect is her every pout and pose.
There’s added comic delight from the English subtitles which sneak in fun references to 80s pop classics. The Italian libretto somehow allows ‘translations’ to include lines like ‘Love will tear us apart’, ‘Careless whisper’ and ‘Uptown girl’. Angelina’s delicate expression of delight meeting the prince is rendered as ‘Whoa, boy!’; the evil sisters’ ‘Che sorpreso!’ as ‘WOT?’
In Rossini’s version of the Cinderella story, Don Magnifico replaces the traditional wicked stepmother. He’s doubly evil, despising his stepdaughter Angelina, La Cenerentola, because, in an effort to maintain a lifestyle he can’t afford, he has siphoned off her rightful inheritance and lavished it on his daughters. Alexander Jones is wonderful as this comic creation, using his physical presence and deep voice to great effect. Wined and dined by the Prince, he appears in a gold cloak and bacchanalian crown, bunches of grapes hanging ludicrously around his face.
Rossini replaces the Fairy Godmother with Alidoro, a philosopher and tutor to the Prince. Martin-Brandis makes her instead a powerful female, Alidora, confidently played by Wiktoria Wizner who first appears disguised as a beggar to suss out Don Magnifico’s daughters and then as sexy fixer to the Prince.
The show, appearing first at the Camden Fringe before going to Edinburgh, makes the most of little. Music is provided by musical director Giannis Giannopoulos on piano. The famous storm, created by two characters flapping a huge plastic sheet, is strangely effective. Changes of scene between Don Magnifico’s and the Prince’s palazzo are neatly achieved by switching wall hangings. There’s no pumpkin coach in Rossini’s version – he too must have realised it’d be too difficult to stage. Here there is talk of limos and Porsches. Rossini for some reason exchanged the all-important glass slipper for a pair of bracelets. Here a sparkly pair of high heels is surely the right way to go.
At 90 minutes you long for more. It’s a delightful evening and you leave humming the tunes.
Runs until 6 August 2023, the at the Edinburgh Fringe
Camden Fringe runs until 27 August 2023
