Pauline Viardot created her version of Cinderella, a comic opera in three tableaux for seven solo singers, chorus and piano, to her own libretto, and premiered it in April 1904 in her Paris salon when she was 84 years old.
Viardot, one of the most celebrated singers of her generation, made her debut as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello in London in 1839 at 17 years. During her stellar operatic career, she inspired composers like Saint-Saëns and Gounod to write and dedicate roles to her. She studied piano with Franz Liszt and played piano duets with Clara Schumann.
As a singer and composer, Pauline Viardot was at the centre of artistic life in Paris in the second half of the nineteenth century. She wrote over 100 songs, including transcriptions of Chopin’s 12 mazurkas, four operettas and her opera Cendrillon. Taking the lead from Viardot’s salon setting, our production of Cendrillon brings a group of performers together in the same space to tell the well-known story with some modern twists and unexpected turns!
CENDRILLION is presented alongside POSTCARD FROM MOROCCO on alternative evenings. Double bill performance on Saturday 9th March.
