Oana Ondra and Martin Tsonev will sing in “La Cenerentola” by Rossini with Stage director Vera Petrova on 7 October at 19.00 h at the Sofia Opera and Ballet, inform from the theatre.
The Romanian mezzo-soprano will be in the main role – of Cenerentola (Cinderella), and our bass, who makes career in Germany, will be her partner as Alidoro. Participants are also Hrisimir Damyanov, Atanas Mladenov, Nikolay Petrov, Milena Gyurova, Blagovesta Mekki-Tsvetkova. Conductor is Zhorzh Dimitrov.
The conquering fairy-tale story about the little poor girl, who turns into princess, is a little bit modified – the character lives with her stepfather and his daughters. There is also no Fairy Godmother, who makes the fairy transformations in the plot, known to many generations of children. Instead of her, the action directs Alidoro, the tutor of Prince Ramiro. There is no such personage, there is no magic – everything is at the edge between the serious and the comical.
“I have acted also in versions, in which Cinderella is an embodiment of the suffering, but I prefer the reading of Vera Petrova”, said Oana Ondra. She debuted in the role still as a student and she continues to like Rossini’s music and especially this opera of his. What the audience of the Sofia “La Cenerentola” can only guess, is that for ca. 40 seconds the main character changes her clothes before her final very beautiful aria.
The set design of the young, but gathering speed with each spectacle Boryana Angelova is unusual and in complete harmony with the director’s reading of the work. Huge gaily-coloured eggs accommodate the characters now as rooms, now as a carriage and at times they turn into a flower garden. The fresh and bright feeling from these original solutions is completed by the luxuriant, deliberately decided at the edge between the beautiful and the kitsch, costumes of Hristiana Mihaleva-Zorbalieva.
Even if foretold, the happy end doesn’t come by itself. Rossini has borrowed only the happier denouement from Charles Perrault’s work, by which Cinderella nobly intercedes for her evil and envious sisters.
The interaction of the themes of forgiveness, love, humbleness and hopes, which come true, makes the spectacle so interesting and liked, note from the Opera.