Customer Reviews

Massenet: Cendrillon (Cinderella)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Massenet's beautiful lyrical opera is recorded here with an unequalled cast. VonStade is absolutely delightful, Ruth Welting is absolutely enchanting; her coloratura is unparalelled in all of opera and her career should have gone on forever. Gedda, while miscast, is exceptional in the role of the prince. The recording is a must for any opera lovers' collection.

This is a marvellous recording. Frederica von Stade floats the title role in exquisite detail, passage after passage sounding just right, with a French style and clarity that puts most native French singers to shame. Even the boring bits (and it would not be 19th c. French opera without long boring stretchs where one can catch up on gossip without loss) become exciting when she is involved. The Philharmonia and Ambrosian Chorus under Julius Rudel are also at their best, and since both have a lot of work, this is a real plus. While Nicolai Gedda is not a soprano, I am more sympathetic to the transposition than many listeners, and he does sing very stylishly, though I suppose he was in his 50's when this was recorded. Jules Bastien makes up for lack of beautiful tone by a characterful performance and Jane Barbie is a delight. But it is von Stade that puts this one into orbit. It is now my favorite Massenet recording. And overall it makes a very stong version of the fairy tale.

Unlike the reviewer above, I didn't mind Nicoloi Gedda as the prince, but then I have never heard another recording of this opera. So far as I can make out there has never been another one; in the latter 20th-century it appears to have been produced only once (the production that led to this recording). Apparently it was written in a style that went out of vogue shortly after the first production--in 1902 I think (which, incidentally, was highly successful)--as a result of which this gem has been horribly neglected. If you like the samples that Amazon offers, rest assured that the entire score is just as good, or better, than what you heard here.

I love this opera! I've long liked Massenet a great deal but this opera has helped me to fall in love with the man! This music is some of the most gratifying music ever written. It never fails to entertain you, some parts are so beautiful they crawl under skin and leave your hairs on end in awe!
I own a recent copy put out by sony that does not include a libretto but just a couple paragraphs...i bought it at amazon.uk for like twenty dollars where you can still get it for about the same...but i have'nt been able to stop listening to it since i bought it. It's haunting but not quite. I guess the best way to describe it is 'flowing' just like all of Massenet's music but this peice has a decidely more possitive feel to it. The only way to know how great it is, is to hear it.
To hear it is to know it is to love it.

My main purpose in writing this review is to correct a previous review which infers the opera has seldom been performed in the late twentieth century. The New York City Opera production (in which Rudel was the original conductor) has been performed many times (in at least four different seasons) over three decades. It is being performed in the fall of 2007. Ruth Welting performed the lead about twenty five years ago.
If it has seldom been recorded, it may well be because it would be nearly impossible to equal the work done here. The gorgeous fanfares of the first and third acts are thrilling and the equisite high range soprano arias in the second act whould melt anyone's heart. Everyone for whom I have ever played this recording has been enchanted!!!!