Opera guides
La Cenerentola: synopsis, roles, arias and diction notes
Rossini's La Cenerentola in one page: librettist, premiere, voice types, act-by-act synopsis, the famous numbers and Italian diction notes.
Diction Desk editors · Checked 19 October 2026 against 4 sources
La Cenerentola is a dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti1. It was first performed at Rome's Teatro Valle on 25 January 18171. The fairy godmother becomes the philosopher Alidoro, and the glass slipper becomes a silver bracelet1.
- Composer
- Gioachino Rossini1
- Librettist
- Jacopo Ferretti1
- Premiere
- 25 January 1817, Teatro Valle, Rome1
- Language
- Italian
- Acts
- 21
- Setting
- Salerno, late 18th to early 19th century1
Contents
La Cenerentola retells Cinderella with a stepfather instead of a stepmother and a bracelet instead of a slipper1. It is now considered a staple of the standard repertoire1. This page covers what you need before you open the score, one of many guides in the operas section.
At a glance
Gioachino Rossini wrote La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo as a dramma giocoso in two acts1. The libretto is by Jacopo Ferretti, an Italian writer, poet and opera librettist who lived from 1784 to 18521,2. It is based on libretti written by Charles-Guillaume Étienne1. The opera is set in Salerno, in the late 18th to early 19th century1.
It premiered at Rome’s Teatro Valle on 25 January 18171. Rossini composed it when he was 25 years old, following the success of The Barber of Seville the year before1. Only The Barber of Seville is played more often among Rossini’s operas3.
How it was written
Rossini was in Rome and tasked with writing a new opera for the Teatro Valle, to be staged on Saint Stephen’s Day1. An existing libretto, Francesca di Foix, had unexpectedly been vetoed by the papal censor1. Ferretti proposed more than two dozen subjects without success1. Finally, between yawns, and with Rossini half asleep on a sofa, the poet mentioned Cinderella1. Ferretti had intended to call his opera Angiolina, or the Triumph of Goodness4.
Then came the speed. Ferretti finished the libretto in twenty-two days of breakneck work, and Rossini completed the score in an equally hectic twenty-four days1. To save time Rossini reused an overture from La gazzetta and part of an aria from The Barber of Seville1. He also enlisted a collaborator, Luca Agolini, who wrote the secco recitatives and three numbers1.
Who’s who
| Role | Voice type | Notes | Premiere singer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angelina (Cenerentola) | Contralto or mezzo-soprano | The heroine1 | Geltrude Righetti1 |
| Don Ramiro | Tenor | Prince of Salerno1 | Giacomo Guglielmi1 |
| Dandini | Baritone | The Prince’s valet1 | Giuseppe de Begnis1 |
| Don Magnifico | Bass | Baron of Montefiascone, Cenerentola’s stepfather1 | Andrea Verni1 |
| Alidoro | Bass | Philosopher and the Prince’s former tutor1 | Zenobio Vitarelli1 |
| Clorinda | Soprano | Don Magnifico’s elder daughter1 | Caterina Rossi1 |
| Tisbe | Mezzo-soprano | Don Magnifico’s younger daughter1 | Teresa Mariani1 |
| Courtiers | Tenors, basses | From Prince Ramiro’s palace1 |
The stepmother becomes a stepfather, Don Magnifico, and the Fairy Godmother becomes Alidoro1. Angelina is also described as a coloratura mezzo-soprano and Ramiro as a light tenor3.
Synopsis
Act 1
Angelina, known to her stepfather and stepsisters as Cenerentola, is forced to serve as the maid in her own home1. A beggar arrives; her stepsisters, Clorinda and Tisbe, want to send him away, but Cenerentola gives him bread and coffee1. Her stepfather hopes to use the Prince’s visit to save his own failing fortune1. Courtiers announce that Prince Ramiro will visit while he searches for the most beautiful girl in the land to wed1.
When the room is empty, Ramiro enters alone, disguised as a valet1. He and Cenerentola are attracted to each other in the duet Un soave non-so che1. Cenerentola asks to join the others, but Magnifico refuses1. Magnifico claims she has died and stealthily threatens to murder Cenerentola if she reveals herself1. If Ramiro really cares for her, she says, he will find her, and she gives him one of a matching pair of bracelets1. Dandini gives the sisters a little test: he offers his valet to whichever sister the prince does not marry1. Alidoro then arrives with a beautiful, unknown lady who strangely resembles Cenerentola1.
Act 2
Magnifico frets over the competition his daughters now face from the strange lady1. Ramiro recognizes Cenerentola’s bracelet on her right arm1. Alidoro sabotages Ramiro’s carriage so that it breaks down in front of Magnifico’s manor1. Dandini tries to stall but is forced to admit that he is actually the valet and not the prince at all1.
When Ramiro threatens Cenerentola’s recalcitrant family, she asks him to forgive them1. Ramiro and Cenerentola are married and celebrate their wedding at the palace1. She asks only to be acknowledged, at last, as his daughter, then forgives her family for all her past unhappiness, adding that her days of sitting sadly by the fire are over1.
The famous numbers
| Number (first line) | Role | Act |
|---|---|---|
| Miei rampolli femminini | Don Magnifico | 11 |
| Come un’ape ne’ giorni d’aprile | Dandini | 11 |
| Un soave non-so che | Angelina and Ramiro (duet) | 11 |
| Sì, ritrovarla io giuro | Ramiro | 21 |
| Questo è un nodo avviluppato | Ensemble | 21 |
| Nacqui all’affanno / Non più mesta | Angelina | 21 |
For an 1820 revival in Rome, Rossini wrote a bravura replacement1. The score is considered to have some of his finest writing for solo voice and ensembles1.
Lines to study
| Original | Our translation |
|---|---|
| Miei rampolli femminini1 | My feminine offshoots |
| Come un’ape ne’ giorni d’aprile1 | Just as a bee in April’s days |
| Sì, ritrovarla io giuro1 | Yes, I swear I will find her |
| Nacqui all’affanno1 | I was born to sorrow |
Language and diction notes
The score is in Italian. The full rules, with IPA, are on the Italian diction page. To hear how another score sets the same language, compare L’elisir d’amore.
Angelina’s part was originally written for a coloratura contralto, which became rare, and the opera fell slowly out of the repertoire1. Today the role is also sung by mezzo-sopranos1.
Reception and revival
The opera was received coldly at first by the critics1. The Roman censors deemed an earlier version of the text immoral, and Ferretti was brought in to clean it up4. It reached London in 1820, Paris in 1822, and New York and Buenos Aires in 18261. A celebrated 1952 revival, conducted by Vittorio Gui, is on record1. Recordings include a Claudio Abbado set with Teresa Berganza and Luigi Alva, and others with Cecilia Bartoli and with Agnes Baltsa1. Ferretti wrote only one more libretto for Rossini, Matilde di Shabran, in 18211.
