Disney’s Frozen has captivated audiences with its fanciful take on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen. Parodies, covers and references to its Academy-Award winning song have saturated the media, while skeptics wish fans would “Let It Go.”
However, long before empowered Disney princesses were falling head-over-heels for princes, independent heroines of bel canto operas were pursuing equally improbable romances against the odds of comedic villains and irreconcilable conflicts – all set to scores of operatic greats such as Gioachino Rossini.
Chicago’s Lyric performed Rossini’s famous Barber of Seville and The Family Barber adaptation in March. In this opera buffa, Count Almiviva falls in love with the beautiful Rosina. He disguises himself as the peasant Lindoro to woo her, and she falls in love with him. With the help of Figaro, the Barber, the couple willfully defies Rosina’s buffoonish custodian, Bartollo, in order to meet and marry.
Rossini’s La Cenerentola, based on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale Cendrillon, tells the familiar tale of Cinderella. The opera differs notably from Disney’s well-known tale in a number of ways, including the presence of a stepfather instead of stepmother and a bracelet rather than a glass slipper serving to identify Cenerentola. Rossini composed Cenerentola in merely three weeks and expedited the process by reusing part of a Barber aria.
Thanks to Fathom Events, PN is giving away pairs of tickets to live and encore presentations of Cenerentola, as well as Puccini’s La Boheme, and Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte.
Please email emilyriederer@gmail.com if interested. For dates, times, and a complete schedule of the Met: Live in HD season and to find a theater near you, visit www.FathomEvents.com.
