Organization

Wexford Festival Opera

Stage director

Davide Gasparro

Conductor

Giuseppe Montesano

Costume designer

Frances White

Singer

Soprano

Corina Ignat

Stepmother

Bass

Peter Lidbetter

Kink

Set designer

Eleonora Rossi

Lighting designer

Daisy Long

Megan O’Neill

Cinderella

Ami Hewitt

Hannah O’Brien

Griselda

Leah Redmond

Mezzo-soprano

Emily Hogarty

Zibaldona

Sarah Luttrell

Baritone

Peter McCamley

Minister

Deirdre Arratoon

Emeline

Tenor

Michael Bell

Prince

Orchestra

Wexford Festival Ensemble

anglès

Wexford

Ireland

O’Reilly Theatre

Cinderella Deutscher

Public

Approved

Other composers, including Nicholas Isouard and Pauline Viardot, have made their versions too. But it is safe to say that none was as young as Alma Deutscher, who was only eight when she started work on her opera in 2013. Completing the full-length opera by the age of 11, Deutscher surely qualifies for the ‘prodigy’ tag that is normally reserved for composers of the past.

Deutscher’s version of the famous fairy tale involves modifications of the plot, now revolving around music. But equally, her treatment of music has something of an enchanting child’s play about it. She sets it in an opera house inhabited by a crowd of creative people — Cinderella herself being a talented composer consigned to the drudgery of being a copyist. The Ugly Sisters — less talented, of course — are a couple of would-be divas. The Prince is a poet who is mocked at court for his artistic leanings, and after her midnight flight from the palace he seeks her out using not a slipper but one of her melodies as the identifying proof. They find each other ‘like lyrics find melody’. Even at such a young age, Deutscher has felt the need to defend her love of beautiful melody. ‘If the world is so ugly,’ she has said, ‘then what’s the point of making it even uglier with ugly music?’

Following an early try-out in Israel, Deutscher’s Cinderella received its premiere in Vienna in December 2016, conducted by Zubin Mehta, no less. The composer took part, presenting herself first as a violin virtuoso (Cinderella’s alter ego) and then accompanying from the piano. A year later, the work had its first American performance at Opera San José (a production also released on DVD by Sony).

Cinderella is Deutscher’s second opera (the first was a short work, The Sweeper of Dreams), and her catalogue, also including a piano concerto and violin concerto, already covers many genres. She is a name to watch — why not watch her in Wexford?

English

Cinderella by Deutscher, De (2022/2022), Dirigit per Davide Gasparro,, Director musical Giuseppe Montesano, O’Reilly Theatre, Wexford, Ireland

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