A cinderella story full of tender emotion and sparkling comedy.

Rossini’s music has an irrepressible quality, bubbling up effortlessly throughout this retelling of the story of Cinderella. The invention is unstoppable, from Cenerentola’s plaintive song about a king who loves a poor girl to the lavish coloratura of her final aria when goodness triumphs and all ends, for some at any rate, happily ever after.

But this is no glibly resolved fairy-tale. Rossini’s creation dispenses with whimsy and magical intervention. Instead, we are presented with genuine human predicaments. The wicked stepmother becomes a snobbish bully of a stepfather and the fairy godmother is transformed into the Prince’s tutor, intent on finding a girl who may be worthy of his pupil’s love. The dark edges of the story are punctuated throughout by tender emotion and sparkling comedy.

When this production, directed by Peter Hall, was first seen in 2005, Opera magazine credited it as ‘thoughtful, fresh and full of insight’ while for The Telegraph it ‘met the Glyndebourne gold standard’.

Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, Festival 2005.