Cendrillon
Music by Jules Massenet · libretto by Henri Caïn · premiered 1899 · at Opéra-Comique
Cendrillon (French pronunciation: [sɑ̃dʁijɔ̃] ; Cinderella) is an opera—described as a "fairy tale"—in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Caïn based on Perrault's version of the Cinderella fairy tale in his 1697 collection Histoires ou contes du temps passé. It had its premiere performance on 24 May 1899 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera notes that Massenet's sense of humor and wit is more evident in this work, and the use of recurrent motifs is more discreet, while the love music "reminds us how well Massenet knew his Wagner". Albert Carré (director of the Opéra-Comique and producer of the first staging) persuaded the composer to drop a prologue introducing the characters, but a brief epilogue survives. Another writer comments that Massenet's perfectly proportioned score moves from a scene worthy of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Armide (in Cendrillon's monologue), through Rossinian vocalises and archaic orchestrations to ballet movements on a par with Tchaikovsky.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Cendrillon (Massenet)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (French pronunciation: [ʒyl emil fʁedeʁik masnɛ]; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). He also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music. While still a schoolboy, Massenet was admitted to France's principal music college, the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired. After winning the country's top musical prize, the Prix de Rome, in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres, but quickly…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Jules Massenet", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Jules Massenet
- Don César de Bazan (1844)
- Hérodiade (1877)
- Esclarmonde (1889)
- Grisélidis (1891)
- Chérubin (1905)
- Ariane (1906)
- Bacchus (1909)
- Don Quichotte (1910)