Lyric Opera’s “Cinderella”/Photo: Michael Brosilow
RECOMMENDED
Lyric Opera brings a welcome blaze of Mediterranean sunshine to Chicago’s frigid winter with a bouncy revival of Gioachino Rossini’s “La Cenerentola”—or as more commonly known in English, “Cinderella.” The opera is presented in the classic mounting by the late French director-designer Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
The company is fielding two notable house debuts with the opera’s central romantic couple. At the opening, Russian-born mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya began tentatively as Angelina, Rossini’s winsome Cinderella figure, with intermittent audibility issues in middle voice. She quickly hit her stride with a scintillating gleam on high that soared enchantingly through the florid vocal line, and an earthy chest register. Berzhanskaya delivered a lovable characterization to boot, and looked stunning in Ponnelle’s wardrobe. The famous final rondo was dispatched with brio and grace. Jack Swanson’s brightly textured tenor and ingratiating stage presence made for an impressive Prince Ramiro; particularly in his fluid handling of the fiendishly difficult display writing in “Si, ritrovarla io giuro.” He was moreover a lively figure onstage and ensured that his prince remained regal without becoming wooden.
Alessandro Corbelli’s characterful Don Magnifico reconfirmed the Italian baritone’s status as past master of Rossini’s buffo roles. The patter in “Sia qualunque delle figlie” was delightfully managed. Bass-baritone Nicholas Newton essayed a noble Alidoro (who replaces the Fairy Godmother in Rossini’s account) and there was a properly odious pair of stepsisters in Teresa Castillo’s pertly pealing Clorinda and Sophia Maekawa’s plummy Tisbe.
Joshua Hopkins was charm personified as the roguish valet Dandini. The Canadian baritone was in prodigious vocal estate and proved himself an unusually adept comedian. Hopkins’ solid, responsive delivery in “Un segreto d’importanza” with Corbelli earned the loudest ovation of the evening.
Lyric Opera’s “Cinderella”/Photo: Michael Brosilow
Ponnelle’s mounting remains a near-ideal take on the piece, and his whimsical greystone settings and eye-catching costumes emit as much fairytale dazzle as ever. Duane Schuler’s sun-drenched lighting completed the fanciful ambiance. It must be said that Ponnelle’s original direction has inevitably lost some specificity over multiple revivals around the world (including three previous outings at Lyric) since the production’s creation in the late 1960s. The performance consequently took time to get off the ground, though matters perked up considerably at Dandini’s entrance. Revival director Gregory A. Fortner kept things skipping along thereafter.
Conductor Yi-Chen Lin and Lyric’s excellent orchestra bubbled their way through the overture. Lin’s tempi throughout the rest of the afternoon were occasionally a trifle measured, though the setpieces and ensembles were meticulously rendered, and the playing was consistently topnotch. There was notably attractive work from the winds and the strings. The singers delivered the copious recitatives stylishly over Jerad Mosbey’s fleet harpsichord continuo. The men’s chorus was in fine fettle under Michael Black’s expert direction. This is a treasurable outing for Lyric, and one imagines Rossini would have loved it too.
“Cinderella,” Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 North Wacker, January 21–February 10. Tickets at lyricopera.com.
