La sorpresa de la noche fue Chelsea DeLorenz en el rol titular. Aunque era la suplente de la cantante designada para el estreno, quien se encontraba indispuesta, supo darle a su personaje todo el brillo y la gracia que requiere. Hermosa voz muy bien utilizada. Muy pocas podrían haberlo hecho mejor. Igualmente encomiable el príncipe de Sarah Saturnino. Aplauso especial, para Matthew Maisano como el Padre, el personaje de carácter en la obra, que tuvo un hermoso dúo con DeLorenz. El toque humorístico estuvo muy bien dado por la estupenda Louisa Waycott, como la Madrastra, acompañada hábilmente por Samantha Geraci-Yee y Perri DiChristina, como las hermanastras. Excelentes los coros, y muy bien Edgar Sierra y Andrés Peñalver en sus papeles menores. Aplauso aparte para Jennifer Wu, quien cantó una divertida Quando m'en vo', como inserto durante la fiesta.
Sarah Saturnino cut a tall, strikingly handsome figure as the bored, unhappy prince. The clear standout of the cast, she brought a wide range of vocal colors and dynamics to Massenet’s delicate writing. Her noble bearing, elegant phrasing and silvery top register portend future success in the Mozart-Strauss mezzo repertoire. Due to the illness of Maya Gour, the title role was sung by Chelsea DeLorenz. The petite singer made a fragile, vulnerable Cinderella, bringing emotion to her solo flights and capturing the protagonist’s loneliness and despair. After an uneven beginning, perhaps caused by nerves, her moderate-sized voice took wing in the scenes with Saturnino, the duets achieving their proper magic. In this version Cinderella’s father Pandolfe has a large role. Matthew Maisano encompassed the serious and comic elements of the role superbly. Maisano’s dark bass-baritone and commanding stage presence gave the role greater dimension. The tenderness of the scenes with his daughter proved one of the evening’s highlights. And his turn from harried, henpecked husband to finally standing up to his wife and Cinderella’s stepsisters, garnered approving laughter from the audience.
Modern technology and opera melded seamlessly when the Miami Beach Classical Music Festival presented an immersive production of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges (as part of a double bill with Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi) Saturday night in the ballroom of Temple Emanu-El in Miami Beach. Festival director Michael Rossi’s mappings engulfed the staging’s backdrop and the walls around the space for a surround immersive experience of cinematic proportions.
Freia the goddess of youth, was elegantly sung by Stephanie DePrez. As Donner, the god of thunder, Hunter Enoch proved a dramatic presence, and William McCullough displayed a clarion voice as Froh.
