FIRST NIGHT

Opera review: Cendrillon at Glyndebourne

Spun from magic and dreams, and shaped by enchantment and imagination, Massenet’s work becomes a complex modern-day fairytale
Alongside beauty and pain in Cendrillon is exaggerated comedy
Alongside beauty and pain in Cendrillon is exaggerated comedy
RICHARD HUBERT SMITH

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★★★★☆
For its first production of Massenet’s Cendrillon, Glyndebourne has enlisted Fiona Shaw. And what a shrewd move that proves to be: the director turns this fin-de-siècle confection into a complex modern-day fairytale and a story of psychological transformation. Yet if that sounds rather worthy, this production is anything but. It’s spun from magic and dreams, and shaped by enchantment and imagination.

Cinderella’s rags-to-riches, happily-ever-after narrative can seem like an outdated patriarchal fantasy and a predictable closed book. Instead, Shaw finds fascinating possibilities within Henri Cain’s Perrault-inspired libretto. We meet Cendrillon as a carefree child who stumbles across a cobbler working on a pair of glass slippers. She plays with a butterfly, slips off through revolving mirrored doors and comes back years older. These