OCU’s mainstage opera this semester will be a French version of the Cinderella fairytale.
Cendrillon will be performed at 8 p.m. Feb. 22-23 and at 3 p.m. on Feb. 24 in Kirkpatrick Auditorium in Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center. It has music by Jules Massenet and libretto by Henri Cain, and it will be performed in English.
Karen Coe Miller, assistant director of opera and music theater and director of Cendrillon, said it is based on the French Cinderella story by Charles Perrault. Miller also said Perrault’s version of the fairy tale was the first to feature a pumpkin carriage and the fairy godmother.
“It’s a lot gentler than the Grimm version of the tale,” Miller said. “Still the stepsisters, still the mistreatment. This is the one that has the glass slipper and the fairy godmother.”
Miller said Cendrillon is a good show for the Wanda L. Bass School of Music’s season because it has a lot of leading female roles while still having minor roles for men. She said the music school has a higher female student population than male, and it is good to provide these women with opportunities.
Miller also said the show makes a lot of room for exploration of technical aspects and provides designers the opportunity to stretch their abilities. She also said the story of Cendrillon is different from many Cinderella incarnations.
“The longing of the prince matches the longing of Cinderella,” Miller said. “It’s not really the prince saving Cinderella from the circumstances. It has more of a sense of these two soulmates coming together. It’s almost a little bit of a flip on the underdog female being saved by the prince. In this case, Cinderella saves the prince at the end.”
Solveig Neseth, opera performance graduate, portrays “La Fée,” the fairy godmother. Neseth said the show will appeal to a wide range of audiences.
“This is a really classic fairy tale that everybody’s really familiar with,” Neseth said. “It’s going to be really accessible. We’re doing it in English, so the language barrier is not as much of an issue for people who are maybe not as comfortable seeing opera.”
Editor’s note: Photo Editor Elina Moon and Web Editor Jessica Vanek are in the production. They did not participate in the writing or editing of this story.
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