MOMA & LINCOLN CENTER

Metropolitan Opera
La Cenerentola - Rossini

Lunch at The Modern and then a swing through the 5th floor where "The Biggies" are.

Three peerless Rossini virtuosos star in La Cenerentola—a vocal tour de force for mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, singing her first Met performances of the Cinderella title role, and tenors Juan Diego Flórez and Javier Camarena, who share the role of her Prince Charming. Alessandro Corbelli and Luca Pisaroni complete the cast, with Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leading the effervescent score.


The NYT's review.

“La Cenerentola,” Rossini’s version of the Cinderella fairy tale, is Cinderella’s show. The Metropolitan Opera has a dazzling, plucky and endearingly poignant Cinderella in the superb American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who triumphed Monday night when the company’s 1997 production, which gives this 1817 classic a 1930s look, returned to the repertory.

The ovations were just as lusty, and equally deserved, for the Mexican tenor Javier Camarena as Don Ramiro, the prince, especially after his exciting account of the character’s bravura aria during the first scene of Act II.

The aria comes after Cinderella, having attended the prince’s ball in a glittering gown and kept her identity secret, forbids the prince to follow her home, insisting that, if he truly loves her, he must search her out. With the gentlemen of the court (the chorus) behind him, Mr. Camarena’s prince first expressed his romantic yearning in melting, pliant phrases. Then, as the prince found his resolve, Mr. Camarena dispatched the aria’s impetuous runs, capped by thrilling top notes including an effortless high D, finally finishing with a glorious high C he seemed almost reluctant to cut off. As he raced off the stage, the house erupted with applause and bravoes. The ovation went on so long I thought Mr. Camarena was going to have to break character and return for a bow. He didn’t. 

That the extraordinary Ms. DiDonato was such a marvelous Cinderella, though a delight, was not really a surprise. She has become a mainstay at the house. But it’s only recently that Met audiences have come to realize what a prince among tenors Mr. Camarena, 38, has become. Last month he won over audiences and critics for his superb Elvino in the Met’s revival of Bellini’s “Sonnambula.” Juan Diego Flórez was supposed to be the tenor for this “Cenerentola,” but he withdrew from the first three performances because of illness, and Mr. Camarena agreed to take over.

Mr. Camarena has good technique, plenty of power, rhythmic vitality and feeling for the bel canto style. Still, what makes his voice exceptional is something very basic: his beautiful sound. Throughout his range his voice is warm, honeyed and penetrating, whether in gentle pianissimo phrases or bursts of intensity. He also has a charming, boyish stage presence.

I will not soon forget the way he and Ms. DiDonato sang the beguiling duet in the first scene. The prince appears disguised as his valet, to determine what the eligible women in his realm are truly like. He is immediately captivated by the guileless sweetness and touching beauty of Cinderella, in a frumpy servant’s dress and apron. The voices of these two fine artists blended affectingly as they conveyed the hesitant longing of this lovely duet, supplely conducted by Fabio Luisi, who drew a crisp and stylish overall performance from the orchestra.

The downtrodden Cinderella is treated as an all-purpose housemaid by her blustery stepfather (the baritone Alessandro Corbelli) and her sniping stepsisters (Rachelle Durkin and Patricia Risley). But the inner strength of this Cinderella could not be broken. You could sense the audience rooting for her during Ms. DiDonato’s ebullient account of Cinderella’s final showpiece aria, the music of a joyous young bride. She sang with impish glee, dispatching virtuosic runs and turns, leaping from her chesty low register to gleaming high notes.

This Cesare Lievi production is as frustrating as it was at its premiere. Some mysterious elements of the story are effectively drawn out with quasi-surreal imagery. The prince’s courtiers, wearing black bowler hats, their faces almost pasty white, look like figures out of Magritte artworks. Alidoro, formerly the prince’s tutor, an angelic figure who appears in several guises and fosters the romance of the prince and Cinderella, comes across as delightfully spooky; the robust bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni was terrific in the role. In his Met debut, the Italian baritone Pietro Spagnoli brings a muscular voice and comedic flair to the role of Dandini, the prince’s valet, who, at his boss’s command, pretends to be the prince in the first part of the story.

Yet the real humor of “La Cenerentola” comes from the ensembles that run through the work and from the way Rossini presents the characters as utterly baffled by the entanglements they fall into. This production turns many ensembles into dumb slapstick routines, especially a spaghetti dinner near the prince’s palace that devolves into a food fight.

The big news here is that Ms. DiDonato has brought her winning Cinderella to the Met, and that Mr. Camarena has emerged as a major tenor. As of now, there are just two more chances to hear him as the prince. He is not scheduled to sing at the Met at all next season. Sadly, this is just the way things happen in a field where in-demand singers are booked years in advance."