Preview: UT Opera Theatre Offers Four Performances of ‘Cinderella’ This Weekend

Although the 17th Century French author Charles Perrault did not coin the phrase “fairy tale”—that honor goes to Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d’Aulno—he certainly gets credit for creating the genre. Late in life, Perrault turned his attention to works for children, adapting, standardizing, and embellishing existing European folk tales. His best known works were published in a collection titled Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Stories or Tales from Past Times), including “La Belle au bois dormant” (“Sleeping Beauty”), “Barbe Bleue” (“Bluebeard”),”Le Petit Chaperon Rouge” (“Little Red Riding Hood”), “Le Maître chat ou le Chat botté” (“Puss in Boots”), and “Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre” (“Cinderella”).

Perrault’s “Cendrillon” is the basis for a number of the iconic themes and images we commonly associate with the story— magic, the fairy godmother, the pumpkin becoming a coach, and the glass slipper. In addition to film and stage derivations, Perrault’s version has also become the basis for a number of opera libretti, including Rossini’s La Cenerentola (libretto by Jacopo Ferretti) and Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon (libretto by Henri Cain). It is the Massenet work that is the spring opera production of the University of Tennessee Opera Theatre at the Bijou this weekend. The opera is sung in French accompanied by projected English supertitles. 

Massenet’s Cendrillon had its premiere in Paris in 1899 at the Salle Favart. Although the work received numerous U.S. productions over the years—including a notable one at Santa Fe Opera in 2006 with Joyce DiDonato—it had never received its turn at the Metropolitan Opera until 2018, 119 years after its premiere.

Those familiar with the Perrault story, will find most of the intriguing lead characters in the Massenet opera. Of course, Cendrillon is Cinderella, the daughter of the feckless Pandolfe who has remarried and moved in with the selfish and nagging Madame de la Halitère and her two unpleasant daughters, Noémie and Dorothée. Magic in the opera is the purview of the Fairy God-mother character La Fée who conjures Cendrillon a coach with horses, a beautiful gown, and glass slippers so that she may attend the Prince’s ball. Prince Charming (Le Prince Charmant) is a breeches role in the opera.

The production has been staged by UTOT Director James Marvel with the UT Opera Orchestra under the baton of Conductor Kevin Class.  

As is their usual casting scheme, this UTOT production has two casts split over the four performances.