If you're going to see Gioacchino Rossini's "La Cenerentola" ("Cinderella") at the Capitol Theatre next week, you'll be in for a surprise.
The composer and his librettist have taken a few liberties with the well-known fairy tale. Not to the point where it's unrecognizable, but just enough to make you want to pay attention to the story a little more closely.
Gone is the cruel stepmother and the fairy godmother. In their places you have a mean but buffoonish (after all, this is Rossini) stepfather, and Alidoro, the prince's old tutor (who has a trick or two up his sleeve).
And instead of a glass slipper and magical carriage, there is a bracelet and a sumptuous 1920's-era roadster. "It's a life-size, convertible, luxury car, complete with chauffeur that brings Cinderella onstage," Patricia Weinmann said.
Utah Opera will perform "La Cenerentola" starting Saturday and continuing through March 16. This is the first time since 1992 that Rossini's opera has been seen locally, and this production promises to be visually stunning.
"The set and costumes evoke a fantasy 1920's," Weinmann said. "It's a take-off on those fashions."
Weinmann, who is stage directing, has worked on quite a few productions in Utah, both in the Capitol Theatre and at the Deer Valley Music Festival. She has also been involved with Utah Opera's ensemble program. Weinmann has been here so often over the years she feels as if Salt Lake City is her second home.
Weinmann joined members of the "Cenerentola" cast recently at the Utah Opera Production Studios to discuss the opera with the Deseret Morning News.
The story is about the possibility of transformation, Weinmann said. "Everyone loves the idea of transformation, and Cinderella embraces it." By the end of the opera, everyone is a different person. And, of course, there is a happy ending. "Cinderella has so much love to give, she can forgive everyone," Weinmann said.
The principals of the cast, who Weinmann described as "fantastic" and "brilliant in every way," have had past experience with their characters in "La Cenerentola," except mezzo-soprano Patricia Risley. This will be her first outing as the title character (called Angelina in the opera). "This is my first go, and I'm excited about it," she said.
Risley is familiar with the score of "La Cenerentola," though. She has sung the role of Tisbe, one of the two stepsisters, quite often, and frequently at the Met. She has also sung Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" a number of times. She said there are some similarities between Angelina and Rosina. "Both are very challenging coloratura roles." But she noted that there are more differences between the two characters. "As Angelina I don't get any laughs. I'm not the funny one. And it's been hard for me to leave the comedy to others."
As Cinderella, Risley has to be the "calm, charming, kind one, and that's a lot more work. It's harder, but it's not really that bad."
Despite her miserable home life with a stepfather and two stepsisters who always put her down, Cinderella still tries to see the good in everything. "She never feels sorry for herself," Risley said. "She always tries to make her life better.
"She is a really good person. She has good karma, and it comes back to her" when she and the prince, Don Ramiro, fall in love with each other.
For tenor Chad Freeburg, the part of Don Ramiro is wonderful. "It's a fantastic role," he said. "It's much better than the prince in the Walt Disney movie. He's just a milquetoast there, but in the opera he's mulling over the deeper philosophical reasons for loving someone." And crucial to the story is that when both meet for the first time, they're not who they actually are. "Cinderella is ratty and dressed in a maid's costume, and the prince is in disguise (as his valet Dandini)."
That gives the story a timelessness, Freeburg said. It's about loving someone for the person her or she is, not a financial situation.
Involved in all this is Daniel Belcher. As a baritone who's a tenor wannabe in real life, the next best thing to being a tenor is being a prince wannabe. So, "La Cenerentola" is the perfect outlet. As Don Ramiro's valet Dandini, Belcher plays the prince in disguise for much of the opera, while Ramiro appears as Dandini. "I relish the comedic aspects of the role," Belcher said.
Throughout the opera, there is a hilarious struggle between Dandini and Don Magnifico, Angelina's stepfather. "He does so much to one up me," Belcher said. "And Dandini tries to outdo him. It's sheer joy."
Belcher said that "La Cenerentola" really has something for audiences of all ages. For the adults, there is the music and the singing. "For kids, it's a great introduction to opera. The story is charming, fun and hysterical. It's a fantastic comedy with a storybook set. And it's especially going to be fun with this cast. We crack each other up."
Also in the cast are Steven Condy as Don Magnifico; Derrick Parker as Alidoro; Shannon Kessler as Clorinda, and Erica Brookhyser as Tisbe.
Gerald Steichen returns to Salt Lake City to conduct members of the Utah Symphony.
The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.
If you go ...
What: Rossini's La Cenerentola
Where: Capitol Theatre
When: Saturday, additional performances March 10, 12, 14, 7:30 p.m.; March 16, 2 p.m.
How much: $10-$65
Phone: 355-2787 or 888-451-2787
Also: Question-and-answer session with Utah Opera artistic director Christopher McBeth immediately following each performance, Founders Room, Mezzanine Level, Capitol Theatre
Also: Opera preview lecture with April Greenan, director of the McKay Music Library at the University of Utah, Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., Salt Lake City Public Library Auditorium, free
E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com