Cinderella a curious choice for a festival blockbuster

Emma Matthews as Fairy Godmother, Emily Edmonds as Cinderella, Shane Lowrencev as The King, Margaret Plummer as Prince Charming and Opera Australia Chorus. Photo: Rhiannon Hopley

Cinderella by Jules Massenet, 

Opera Australia

At Sydney Opera House

Reviewed by Helen Musa

Massenet’s Cinderella seems a curious choice as Opera Australia’s Sydney Festival blockbuster piece.

To be sure, it was easy enough to see the connection of Charles Perrault’s Little Glass Slipper tale to the festive season, since the good characters triumph, the selfish ones fail, and everyone lives happily ever after.

And yet it is no accident that this opera is rarely performed, and it was hard to guess at what the many little children in the audience thought of the experience.

Unlike Rossini’s more innovative opera on the same subject, La Cenerentola, its characters are two-dimensional, its tunes few and its outcomes totally predictable, especially in this 90-minute abridged version that omits a revealing scene between Cinderella and the prince in the forest.

This is an imported production staged in association with the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, L’Opéra de Lille and Gran Teatre del Liceu, and features many artists new to Opera Australia.

It is striking for its storybook set by Barbara de Limburg, cleverly movable and inscribed with Perrault’s words in 17th century French.

Full of visual laughs, especially at the comic costumes for the stepsisters, French director and costume designer Laurent Pelly’s production felt for all the world like a Christmas panto minus the Dame to interact with the audience.

Emily Edmonds’ Cinderella is goodness personified, despite her provocative bare shoulders in the ball scene. Angela Hogan’s stepmother, Madame De La Haltière, is insufferably arrogant and the stepsisters are simply ridiculous.

Mezzo-soprano Margaret Plummer plays the pants role of Prince Charming deliberately as Prince Charmless as the opera plods through a long lineup of would-be consorts in two separate scenes, but comes into her own in a sensitively played scene where the young lovers meet at the ball in Act 2.

Emily Edmonds as Cinderella and Richard Anderson as her father, Pandolfe. Photo: Rhiannon Hopley

Thankfully, soprano Emma Matthews, in a welcome return to Opera Australia, provides a bit of sparkle and magic as the Fairy Godmother, while Canberra-trained bass Richard Anderson adds gravitas as Cinderella’s dad Pandolfe (rarely heard of) as a tormented, human individual who reveals his better nature to his daughter in Act 3.

Performed in an English translation by Kelley Rourke to capture maximum laughs, there’s not much in the way of enchantment otherwise, except for the very fine orchestral performances of the Opera Australia Orchestra under the baton of Evan Rogister and the amusing choreography of Laura Scozzi.

First published at Canberra City News, January 8, 2025