| Press Comments |
La Cenerentola, Regent's Park, London The Guardian Sunday 17 July 2005 **** |
| Rossini's version of the Cinderella story seems to be overtaking The Barber of Seville in popularity. Certainly its ensemble-heavy score is at least as strong, while its comedy delivers a more focussed satire on class and snobbery.
In Garden Opera's slimmed-down touring production, sung in Amanda Holden's skilful English translation, there's no chorus and there are a few cuts, while the recitatives are replaced with spoken dialogue adapted by the show's director Martin Lloyd-Evans. But so bright and breezy is the al fresco staging and so high the overall standard of musicianship - the six-piece band led by Peter Bridges is formidable - that there's no sense of being short-changed. The piece's essential humanity registers as clearly as the jokes. The action takes place in the kitchen of a contemporary down-at-heel family, with some ropy old appliances testifying to a lack of cash. Neil Irish has a red carpet rolled out for the palace scenes, where Dulcie Best's impossible party frocks only accentuate the dreadful sisters' chav mannerisms. As Clorinda and Tisbe, Catherine Hegarty and Anne Bourne mount an effective double act of vanity compounded with vulgarity. Craig Smith maintains a permanent frown as their irascible father Don Magnifico, hurling in some menace as well. Christopher Steele's easy-on-the-ear tenor finds suitable employment as Ramiro, the Prince Charming figure, and he's well partnered by John Llewelyn Evans' alert and likable Dandini. In the lead is Serena Kay, who can muster all the notes required of Angelina - as Cinderella is called here - and sings them with convincing ingénue grace, while Stefan Holmström spreads sweetness and light as Alidoro, Rossini's masculinized equivalent of the fairy godmother. The only textual oddity is to give him a standard but dull aria Rossini didn't write instead of the much better one the composer replaced it with. But it would take more than that to dampen the impact of an exuberant evening. George Hall |