After a delicious Italian dinner, a small group of us girls went to the Missouri Theatre to enjoy an evening of "La Cenerentola" known in America as "Cinderella." As the show started, I was thinking of the Disney version of Cinderella that I grew up with. The one where Cinderella has an evil Stepmother and two evil Stepsisters. Where Cinderella's fairy godmother turns her into a beautiful princess and she goes to the ball and falls in love with the prince. This is very different from the Italian version of Cinderella. In this version, Cinderella still has two evil, conniving step sisters but this time, she has an evil stepfather who belittles her. The Prince, in order to find a bride, pretends to be a servant to the "Prince" (who is a friend of the prince pretending to be him) so that he can see the true personalities of the women. Naturally, he falls in love with Cinderella while her step sisters are trying to pursue the fake prince. This time, the fairy godmother belongs to the prince. When she sees he is in love with Cinderella, she goes to her and makes her beautiful for the ball. Although the little details of the story are different, the underlying story of Cinderella is the same: Cinderella is poor and verbally abused by her step family and the prince falls in love with her.
The singing in this Opera was beautiful. I now understand why operas are sung in Italian. The words flow together easily and add to the performance. I really enjoyed seeing "La Cenerentola."
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