"Innovation adds sparkle in a jewel of a production"

LA CENERENTOLA at the GAIETY THEATER, DUBLIN

The collaboration of Americans Thaddeus Strassberger (direction and set design) and Mattie Ullrich (costumes) brings a highly inventive production of Rossini's La Cenerentola to the Gaiety Theatre. The first of Opera Ireland's Spring Season duo -- the other is Gounod's Faust -- this sparkling presentation has already been awarded the 2005 European Opera Directing Prize at the State Theatre in Wiesbaden.

The success of the production stems from Strassberger's imaginative setting of the opera in a small family-run Italian theatre. Don Magnifico becomes the manager/director; his daughters Clorinda and Tisbe are essential to its operation while their stepsister Angelina, or Cinderella, is left to the menial back-stage chores and to be the butt of their verbal abuse.

Strassberger's ideas have plenty of amusing detail with splashes of genius, not least the parody of "The Barber of Seville" during the overture and the allegorical tableau with which the opera ends.

Mattie Ullrich's costumes run a riot of colour and design with particular panache in the outrageous couture of the 'ugly' sisters.

Fortunately, the production avoids over-emphasis on slapstick capering but at the same time situations are engineered to have a genuine sense of comedy with excellent timing from its team of singing actors, chorus and dancers.

Further performances tonight, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday next.

-- Pat O'Kelly

Since 2002 Opera Europa has been awarding a prize, every second year, for the best production and design concept for a given opera submitted by a team aged under 35. This year La Cenerentola was the subject, and Opera Ireland launched the winning production, by the US team of the director-designer Thaddeus Strassberger and costume designer Mattie Ullrich. The opening took place at the Gaiety Theatre on April 22 and proved to be an evening of imaginative originality, beautifully staged and splendidly performed.

At first one feared something had gone wrong, as the overture was accompanied by a dumb show of key scenes from Il barbiere di Siviglia, but we soon discovered that Don Magnifico was actually the theatre owner, who had just staged Rossini’s earlier masterpiece. The action then took place backstage. Clorinda and Tisbe were company stars, Cenerentola the stage manager and general factotum.

Strassberger’s clever sets gave us brilliant perspectives from the theatre’s wings or looking straight into the auditorium, with some superb tromp l’oeil backcloths. He also integrated all the elements of the story into a 1950’s setting with complete assurance. Paul Austin Kelly was every inch the Prince, throwing off Rossini’s high lines with panache. Sam McElroy was excellent as the role-swapping Dandini, and Eimear McNally and Sandra Oman were telling examples of self-glorifying actresses as the sisters Eric Roberts was a nimble and witty Magnifico and the youthful Paolo Pecchioli caught the mood of the elderly Alidoro with great skill. In the title role, the German mezzo-soprano Luisa Islam-Ali-Zade proved quite a find. She possesses a lovely and distinctively dusky tone, is well up to the music’s demands and is a fine actor. The only small problem was that the RTE Concert Orchestra...seemed unhappy, with too many minor glitches, especially in the wind. Fortunately, it failed to dampen the spirit of this important first night.

-- Ian Fox

REVIEW The Sunday Business Post, Sunday, April 30, 2006

LA CENERENTOLA at the GAIETY THEATER, DUBLIN

Rating: ****

Rossini reputedly could rattle off an opera in jig time. It took him even less than that to produce Le Cenerentola (Cinderella) because an irate theatre manager was breathing down his neck for a follow-up to Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

The composer insisted on a Cinderella that was shorn of the supernatural elements – no glass slipper, no pumpkin carriage – and then let some assistants loose. So the story goes, anyway.

What emerged was an overblown, repetitious, bitter-sweet version of the fairy tale – and yet quintessential Rossini. Never be in any doubt about that man’s fiendish intentions where the vocal chords of his singers were concerned.

Even if you were to disregard Opera Ireland’s dazzling production, the variety of ferociously difficult arias – all the way from solo to sextet – would have made this a memorable entertainment.

In this, German coloratura Luisa Islam-Ali-Zade was a wise choice as Angelina (Cinderella), her three-octave range being just what Rossini himself would have ordered.

Islam-Ali-Zade’s effortless vibrato was impressive and the duskiness of her mezzo delivery deliciously seductive. Irish-American tenor Paul Austin Kelly (Don Ramiro, the prince) did not take fright on the Rossini heights and delivered a confident performance, while British baritone Eric Roberts as Don Magnifico (the wicked stepfather) kept the buffa stuff chuckling along nicely – though one would have liked a guffaw now and then.

Irish sopranos Sandra Oman and Eimear McNally as the not-so-ugly stepsisters avoided the temptation to descend into pantomime and did full justice to their limited singing duties.

Cork baritone Sam McElroy (Dandini) sang and acted well, though, at times, he seemed a bit preoccupied with the words – Rossini rarely bothered about them anyway. McElroy also, rather disconcertingly, looked more dreamboatish than the man he was impersonating – the prince.

This production was the result of a competition that won American designers Thaddeus Strassberger and Mattie Ullrich a €15,000 award and they delivered the goods – the visual impact was mesmerising.

Every act carried a surprise of some kind, not least the curtain raiser – a Benny Hill-type mimed parody of Il Barbiere. This led to the Cinderella action taking place in a theatre with Don Magnifico as the devious manager and his stepdaughter as the skivvy.

The closing scene in particular was a visual stunner – bringing to mind Coisceim’s outrageously gorgeous finale for Orfeo ed Euridice two years ago. Perhaps even rivalling it.

-- Dick O’Riordan

"And from then on Strassberger and Ullrich crammed in their ever-shifting scenarios with the paciness of high-speed fast-forward on a DVD player."

-- Michael Dervan reviewing in the Irish Times

The following concept was created with costume designer Mattie Ullrich in response to a call for submissions for the European Opera-directing Prize.

Bozzetti