CINDERELLA (Deutscher) San José CA 2022
CINDERELLA by Alma Elizabeth Deutscher
California Theatre, San José, California, Opera San José
2022
CAST
Vanessa Becerra — Cinderella
Jonas Hacker — Prince
Nathan Stark — King
Claudia Chapa — Emeline
Mary Dunleavy — Stepmother
Stacey Tappan — Griselda
Karin Mushegain — Zibaldon
Brian James Myer — Minister
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Jane Glover — Conductor
Opera San José Orchestra
Opera San José Chorus
Opera San José Dancers
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Brad Dalton — Stage director
Steven Kemp — Set designer
Richard Powers — Choreographer
Johann Stegmeir — Costume designer
Alyssa Oania — Costume director
David Lee Cuthbert — Lighting
Robert Pickens — Hair and makeup
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Cinderella is an opera by Alma Deutscher. The libretto is based on the fairy tale “Cinderella”, but with significant modifications of the plot. The work was first performed in Israel in 2015 in Chamber version, when Deutscher was 10. The orchestral version premiered in the following year in Vienna, on 29 December 2016.
Alma Elizabeth Deutscher (born 19 February 2005) is a British composer, pianist, violinist and conductor. A former child prodigy, Deutscher composed her first piano sonata at the age of five; at seven, she completed the short opera, The Sweeper of Dreams, and later wrote a violin concerto at age nine. At the age of ten, she wrote her first full-length opera, Cinderella, which had its European premiere in Vienna in 2016 under the patronage of conductor Zubin Mehta, and its U.S. premiere a year later. Deutscher’s piano concerto was premiered when she was 12. She has lived in Vienna, Austria, since 2018. She made her debut at Carnegie Hall in 2019 in a concert dedicated to her own compositions.
Plot
Deutscher’s second opera is a full-length work based on the fairy tale of Cinderella, but with significant modifications of the plot, which in her version revolves around music. It is set in Deutscher’s imaginary land, Transylvanian, in an opera house run by Cinderella’s stepmother. The two step-sisters are talentless would-be divas. Cinderella is a talented composer, with “beautiful melodies springing into her head”, but she is not allowed to perform and is slaved-worked as a copyist.[1] Prince Theodore is a poet, who is mocked at court for his artistic leanings. In the first act, Cinderella chances upon a captivating love poem, which unbeknownst to her, was written by the Prince. She is inspired by the poem and sets it to music. Her beautiful melody is stolen by her step-sisters and performed at the singing competition during the royal ball, but with the wrong words. Finally, Cinderella herself sings her song to the prince with the right words, but unaware that he is the poet who wrote them. After Cinderella flees from the ball at midnight, the prince searches for her on the basis of a melody (rather than a glass slipper) – the haunting melody she sang as she fled. Eventually, the pair are united: “they find each other like lyrics find melody”. Deutscher explained that it was important for her that Cinderella “is not just a pretty girl who cleans the floor and keeps quiet, she’s clever and talented”, and she wins the prince because of her talent as a composer.
Quoted from Wikipedia