Download Cinderella Synopsis

Cinderella Synopsis
ACT 1 A state room in Madame de la Haltière’s town house
Servants bustle to prepare for the ball. The henpecked Pandolfe wonders why he ever
left his country estate to remarry an over-bearing countess with two daughters and
pities the lot of his own child Lucette (Cinderella). He leaves as his wife enters to
instruct her daughters on strategy and supervise a troupe of milliners, tailors and
hairdressers. Pandolfe, late for departure, is not allowed to say goodnight to his child.
Cinderella enters and sits by the fire to regret her lot before falling asleep. Her Fairy
Godmother appears and orders her attendants to dress Cinderella for the ball. She
warns her to leave before midnight, and tells her that the glass slippers are a talisman
to prevent her being recognized by her family.
ACT 2 The royal palace
A gaggle of courtiers and an onstage band fail to alleviate the Prince’s melancholy. The King orders him to marry and
eligible princesses arrive for the Prince’s scrutiny. The unknown beauty Cinderella appears to a concertato of general
amazement, and the Prince launches a rapturous love-at-first-sight duet. Cinderella responds but as midnight strikes she
hurries away.
ACT 3, Scene 1 A state room in Madame de la Haltière’s town house
Cinderella relives the glamour of the ball and the terror of her nocturnal flight. The family returns from the ball and
Madame de la Haltière disputes Pandolfe’s account of the events. According to her, the Prince decisively rejected the
bold intruder. Pandolfe notices that Cinderella is about to faint and orders the women from the room. In a duet of great
tenderness he promises that he and Cinderella will return to his country seat. When he exits to prepare for the journey,
Cinderella gives way to despair: rather than allow her father to share her pain, she decides to run away and die on her
own.
ACT 3, Scene 2 A magic landscape around a great oak tree
Fairies and will-o’-the-wisps interrupt their dance as Cinderella and the Prince approach separately, and the Fairy
Godmother conjures up a magic arbor so that they may hear but not see each other. After praying to be released from
their misery, they recognize each other’s voices and reaffirm their love in a mystical ceremony. The Prince hangs his
bleeding heart on the oak, and both fall into an enchanted sleep.
ACT 4, Scene 1 A terrace
Pandolfe watches over his sleeping daughter.
Months have passed since she was found by a
stream half dead with cold. In her delirium she
has been singing about the ball, the mysterious
oak, the bleeding heart and the missing slipper. None of this ever happened, her father
assures her, and she resigns herself to having
dreamed it all. Madame de la Haltière enters
with the news of a grand international assembly of princesses to try on the missing slipper,
and Cinderella joyfully realizes that her dream
was true.
ACT 4, Scene 2 The palace
The princesses appear, but the Prince does not
recognize any of them as his lost love.
Cinderella steps forward and is reunited with
the Prince. The opera ends amid general
rejoicing.
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet
Today Jules Massenet is best known for the operas Manon and Werther and the solo
violin Meditation, from Thais. During his lifetime, however, Massenet was one of the
most prolific and celebrated operatic composers on earth. The public anxiously
awaited his output, and Massenet became both wealthy and famous practicing his
craft. His legacy endures because of his ability to create music which portrays the
intimacy of human relationships and the emotions and conflicts that arise from them.
His gift for melody is reflected in a variety of arias that are among the most beautiful
in the French operatic repertoire. He was also a brilliant orchestrator, a skill which
allowed him to capture the moods and colors of a wide variety of places and eras. In
addition to opera, Massenet composed songs, oratorios, ballets and orchestral works,
as well as chamber music and works for solo piano.
Massenet was born in Montaud, France, to the family of a struggling metal worker. At the tender age of 10, he was
admitted to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with famed operatic composer Ambroise Thomas. In 1863,
Massenet won the Prix de Rome, a prize which allowed him to travel and study in Italy. There the young man
experienced the sounds and textures of the region and began to compose in earnest. While in Italy, Massenet met Liszt,
who introduced him to his future wife, Mademoiselle Sainte-Marie.
Massenet's first opera, a one-act entitled La Grand' Tante (The Great Aunt), was produced (with only moderate success)
at the Opera-Comique in 1867. In 1877 Massenet's exotic opera Le Roi de Lahore (The King of Lahore) had a highly
successful premiere at the Paris Opera, marking the beginning of his ascendancy as France's most prolific and celebrated
operatic composer.
In 1878, his former teacher, Thomas, invited him to become a professor at the Paris Conservatory. Massenet achieved
considerable success as a teacher, influencing an entire generation of French composers, including Gustav Charpentier
and the song composer Reynaldo Hahn.
A highly prolific composer, Massenet worked continuously throughout his life, completing a great deal of music in
addition to his 25 published operas. His approximately 250 songs often reflect the same melodic ingenuity and
expressiveness that define his operatic works. Massenet composed several song cycles, including Poeme d'Avril (April
Poem), which is often identified as the first French song cycle. Among the most famous of his solo songs are "Ouvre tes
yeux bleus" (Open your blue eyes) and "Si tu veux, Mignonne" (If you wish it,
sweetheart). The composer's First Orchestral Suite (originally entitled Symphony in F)
premiered in 1867. This was the first of seven suites by Massenet, with programmatic
subjects ranging from Alsace (Scenes alsaciennes, 1882) to Hungary (Scenes
hongroises, 1871), and from Shakespeare (Scenes dramatiques, 1875) to Fairyland
(Scenes de feerie, 1881). The most famous of his orchestral suites, Scenes pittoresques
(Picturesque Scenes), was first performed in Paris during March of 1874. Massenet
also composed several ballets, including La Cigale, Espada, and Les Rosati. In
addition to Marie-Magdeleine, his oratorios include Eve (1875) and La Terre promise
(The promised land, 1900). He wrote a considerable amount of incidental music for
plays, including Sardou's Le Crocodile (1886) and Racine's Phedre (1900). His only
piano concerto was first performed in 1903 and receives occasional modern
performances.
The fairy tale behind the opera
Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper, is a European folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/
triumphant reward. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed
to remarkable fortune. The most popular versions were published by Charles Perrault in Histoires ou contes du temps
passé in 1697, and by the Brothers Grimm in their folk tale collection Grimms' Fairy Tales.
Although both the story's title and the character's name change in different languages, in English-language folklore
"Cinderella" is the archetypal name. The word "cinderella" has, by analogy, come to mean one whose attributes were
unrecognized, or one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect. The still
-popular story of "Cinderella" continues to influence popular culture internationally, lending plot elements, allusions,
and tropes to a wide variety of media.
The story of Rhodopis about a Greek slave girl who
marries the king of Egypt is considered the earliest
known variant of the "Cinderella" story and many
variants are known throughout the world.
One of the most popular versions of Cinderella was
written in French by Charles Perrault in 1697, under
the name Cendrillon. The popularity of his tale was
due to his additions to the story, including the
pumpkin, the fairy-godmother and the introduction of
glass slippers.
Charles Perrault (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was a French author. He laid the
foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk
tales. The best known of his tales include Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood),
Cendrillon (Cinderella), Le Chat Botté (Puss in Boots), and La Belle au bois dormant
(The Sleeping Beauty). Many of Perrault's stories, which were rewritten by the Brothers Grimm,
continue to be printed and have been adapted to opera, ballet (such as Tchaikovsky's
The Sleeping Beauty), theatre, and film (Disney).
Why is Prince Charming a girl?
Prince Charming is still a boy, but in the opera the role is being SUNG by a
female, in this case a mezzo-soprano. When a male role is sung by a
female, it is called a "pants role." Sometimes, composers will choose for
the roles of younger boys to be sung by females because the female voice
sounds more like an unchanged boy's voice than a male voice would.
Also, a female's frame can be more physically believable as a boy than a
grown man would. In the case of Prince Charming, Massenet wrote the role
specifically for a female mezzo-soprano. Some other celebrated "pants
roles" are Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Hansel in
Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Siebel and Stefano in Faust and Romeo
and Juliet by Gounod, and Octavian in Richard Strauss' Der
Rosenkavalier. Another famous example from American music theater of a
female playing the role of a boy is in the Broadway hit Peter Pan, created
by Mary Martin, and revived on Broadway by Sandy Duncan and Cathy
Rigby!
Marie Lenormand
Prince Charming in
the upcoming New
Orleans Opera
performance of
Cinderella.