UoT Opera’s spring production; Massenet’s 1899 opera Cendrillon, has been transferred to the Elgin Theatre with the MacMillan currently out of commission.  They have made some sensible accommodations to the rather unfriendly Elgin acoustic.  The orchestra is reduced to about thirty players and placed at floor level in front of the stage.  Almost all the stage action takes place right at the front which helped significantly with voice projection.

Pandolfe & Servants

Henri Cain’s libretto cleaves pretty closely to Charles Perrault’s 1697 version of the Cinderella story which has been rather overshadowed in the Anglosphere by the Disney version.  Maria Lamont’s production is quite faithful to the spirit of Perreault and is really rather beautiful in a restrained way.  There is some clowning but, absent a scenery chewing contralto of a kind no student program has to boom out Madame’s music, downplaying the buffo elements in favour of the wistful and psychological makes perfect sense.

Stepmother & Stepsisters – Kcenia Koutorjevski, Jordana Goddard, Chihiro Yasufuku

Visually, effective use is made of the fairies and the rest of the chorus.  Costumes (by Andrew Nasturzuo and Alessi Urbani) are quite spectacular and way beyond most student productions.  There is interesting choreography from Anna Theodosakis enhanced by a Pierrot (William Salinas-Crosby) and, especially, Pierette (Sarah Luedke) who have proper dance moves.

Cendrillon at the ball

The singing and acting is really rather good.  Ellita Gagner gives a prettily sung and soulful Cendrillon and she has the coloratura where she needs it.  Teresa Tucci is an exuberant La Fée with excellent acting and really good coloratura which, after all, is what La Fée is about.  Le Prince Charmant is given to a mezzo; Lissy Meyerowitz, and she is charmante.  She gives an accurate and touching portrayal.

Cendrillon at the ball – Chihiro Yasufuku, Jordana Goddard, Kcenia Koutorjevski, Ellita Gagner

Ben Wallace is rock solid and manages to convey both sadness and frustration as the put upon Pandolfe and Dante Mullin-Santone is equally solid as the king.  This really isn’t an opera that gives the guys many chances to shine although there are a whole raft of supporting roles which are well done.

Act 4 – Shoe Line

Which leaves Madame de la Haltière and the sisters; sung by Kcenia Koutorjevski, Jordana Goddard and Chihiro Yasufuku.  They sing really well in a production that, very sensibly, doesn’t call on them to do the OTT stuff one sometimes sees, though there are some effective gun toting antics from Koutorjevski in Act 3.  I think the director likely gets the performance she wants and it works.

Sandra Horst conducts and gets excellent playing from the orchestra.  With only one instrument on the wind parts there really isn’t anywhere to hide and the playing is really good.  Having a smaller band also means greater detail which is always interesting.

This production is easy on the eye and ear.  With reduced orchestration and young voices (and the Elgin acoustic?) it’s not as “grand” as it might be with bigger forces but it makes psychological sense and it’s emotionally satisfying.  Well worth seeing.

There are three more performances.  Thursday’s cast will sing again on Saturday evening while Friday and Sunday there are performances with, in the usual UoT fashion, some cast changes among the  principals.

Photo credits: Richard Lu