Rossini – La Cenerentola (Donato Renzetti, Kathleen Kuhlmann) [2008]

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Rossini – La Cenerentola (Donato Renzetti, Kathleen Kuhlmann) [2008]

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When my video tape version of this 1983 Glyndebourne production wore out, I immediately bought the DVD. I didn't want to be without this jewel-box of a Rossini, even though it must be admitted that the step-sisters had to wear false noses in order to make themselves uglier than Cenerentola.
In this production, Clorinda (Marta Taddei) and Tisbe (Laura Zannini) weren't overplayed for cheap laughs, as is usually the case. Mezzo-soprano, Kathleen Kuhlmann kept her mugging to a minimum and was in mellow voice throughout. However, it was the men who really stole the show, especially Alberto Rinaldi as Dandini, the valet-disguised-as-a-prince, who was made up as a dead-ringer for Charles I of England. Rossini's original staging may have been an imaginary Italianate kingdom, but this production takes place in dashing, Cavalier England. The scene where Dandini, disguised as Prince Ramiro, prances into Don Magnifico's run-down castle, complete with horse, hounds, and courtiers, and sings of himself as a bee among the flowers (i.e. the ugly stepsisters) is a comic masterpiece. I had to own the DVD just for this aria ("They look just like their father!")
According to Alan Kendall's "Gioacchino Rossini: The Reluctant Hero," the librettist, Jacopo Ferretti had to substitute a bracelet for Cinderella's slipper in order to keep the Vatican censors from catching a glimpse of forbidden feminine ankle on stage. A windy philosopher is substituted for the charming fairy godmother of Charles Perrault's fairy-tale, and the wicked stepmother is transformed into a bombastic stepfather with a gargantuan appetite for wine, grandchildren, and Italian ices. Otherwise, the libretto will seem very familiar to those of us who have seen the Disney "Cinderella."
For sheer Rossinian comic exuberance, this is the DVD to own, and although no individual voice stands out, the cast sounds well together and the ensembles are lively and completely irresistible. American, Kuhlmann is a good-hearted Cenerentola who saves her coloratura fireworks (borrowed from Count Almaviva's cabaletta at the end of "Il Barbiere di Siviglia") for the finale. Laurence Dale is her dashing prince, disguised as a valet through most of the opera. Roderick Kennedy is an imposing tutor who goes around giving everybody good advice rather in the style of Hamlet's Polonius, although no one bothers to stab him, since this is a comic opera. (His big aria, "Vastro teatro è il mondo" oddly enough, was not composed by Rossini.) Claudio Desderi (Don Magnifico) and Alberto Rinaldi (Dandini) are hysterical, especially in their scene together when Dandini reveals his true identity. There is even a trademark Rossinian storm scene performed as a witty pantomime… By E. A. Lovitt

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Rossini – La Cenerentola (Donato Renzetti, Kathleen Kuhlmann) [2008]

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