La Cenerentola: synopsis, roles, arias and diction notes

La Cenerentola retells Cinderella with a stepfather instead of a stepmother and a bracelet instead of a slipper¹. It is a staple of the standard repertoire¹. This page covers what a singer or coach needs before opening the score, one of many guides in the operas section.

At a glance

Gioachino Rossini wrote La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo (“Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant”) 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 1852^1,2. It descends from Charles Perrault’s fairy tale Cendrillon through earlier libretti¹. The opera is set in Salerno, in the late 18th to early 19th century¹.

It premiered at Rome’s Teatro Valle on 25 January 1817^1,4,7. Rossini was 24 when he composed it⁵. Among his operas only The Barber of Seville is played more often³. Rossini’s version carries a charge of pathos behind the laughter⁴.

How it was written

Rossini was in Rome and had to write a new opera for the Teatro Valle, to be staged on Saint Stephen’s Day¹. The commission found him fully occupied with a previous commitment, Otello⁴. The planned libretto, Francesca di Foix, was unexpectedly vetoed by the papal censor¹. The stalemate lasted until three days before the opera was due to open⁴. Rossini had earlier refused a libretto by Ferretti for The Barber of Seville¹. Ferretti proposed more than two dozen subjects for the Carnival season without success¹. Finally, between yawns, with Rossini half asleep on a sofa, the poet mentioned Cinderella¹. Ferretti replied, despite his tiredness, “tomorrow morning!”¹. He worked through the night and had the first parts ready in the morning¹.

Ferretti’s first title was Angiolina, or the Triumph of Goodness⁴. The censors objected again, since Angiolina was the name of a well-known society beauty of the time⁴. He settled for Cenerentola with the definite article⁴. Julian Budden traces the whole rewrite in a San Francisco Opera essay.

Then came the speed. Ferretti finished the libretto in twenty-two days of breakneck work, and Rossini completed the score in twenty-four¹. The opera was written and rehearsed in just over four weeks⁴. Rossini composed each number as it reached him and finished the duet Un segreto d’importanza the night before the opening⁴. To save time he reused the overture of La gazzetta, a comic opera written for Naples the previous year⁴. He also took part of an aria from The Barber of Seville¹. The crescendo theme of that overture returns in the Act 1 finale⁴. The heroine’s closing Non piu mesta began as a virtuoso cabaletta for Almaviva before the finale of Il barbiere⁴. Rossini composed four operas in 1817, each in a different vein⁴.

A collaborator, Luca Agolini, wrote the secco recitatives and three numbers: Alidoro’s Vasto teatro è il mondo, Clorinda’s Sventurata! Mi credea and the chorus Ah, della bella incognita¹. The Kennedy Center’s opera notes also place the heroine’s grand finale in an earlier Rossini work⁵.

Where the story comes from

Rossini’s was not the first Cinderella opera. Niccolò Isouard’s Cendrillon of 1810 became the rage of Paris⁴. Ferretti’s model was Felice Romani’s libretto for Stefano Pavesi’s Agatina, ossia La virtù premiata of 1814⁴. Romani turned the fairy tale into a modern comedy of manners with no pumpkin coach and no fairy godmother, but a philosopher who makes all the arrangements⁴. For the slipper he substituted a rose, which became a bracelet in Ferretti’s libretto⁴.

Romani also removed the stepmother. Mothers in Italian opera of the time are traditionally saintly and usually dead, so the villain is the stepfather⁴. He invented the valet Dandini too⁴. Ferretti and Rossini then dropped the magic, in part because stagecraft had its limits⁸. The libretto lost its supernatural elements for ease of staging¹. The second half of the title keeps the moral: La bontà in trionfo, the triumph of goodness⁸.

Roles and voice types

Angelina, the heroine, is a contralto or mezzo-soprano role¹. The part was written for a coloratura contralto¹. Don Ramiro is a tenor, Dandini a baritone, and both Don Magnifico and Alidoro are basses¹.

The stepmother becomes a stepfather, Don Magnifico, and the Fairy Godmother becomes Alidoro, the Prince’s former tutor¹. Cinderella is identified by her silver bracelet, not a glass slipper¹. The first Angelina, Geltrude Righetti-Giorgi, had created Rosina in Il barbiere the previous year⁴.

The contralto problem

The heroine is a flexible contralto, and her part lends itself less easily to upward transposition than Rosina’s does⁴. That vocal character is the likelier reason the opera fell out of favor⁴. After 1850, contraltos and low mezzo-sopranos tended to be typecast as mother figures⁴. The Spanish contralto Conchita Supervia, active in the 1930s, reminded listeners that the lower female voice can match a coloratura soprano for agility⁴. Today the old-fashioned oratorio contralto is a rarity, while coloratura mezzo-sopranos work in every corner of the world⁴. Joyce DiDonato sang the role of Angelina at the Met⁸.

Casting the voices

This score needs more specialized voices than The Barber of Seville³. Angelina was for many years almost impossible to cast³. Don Magnifico is a basso buffo, a comic type³. Dandini could be a somewhat lighter voice³. Alidoro has no coloratura and is a normal lyric bass³. Don Ramiro must be more agile than Almaviva, with stunning heights³. His Act 2 aria has three parts, and the tenor needs a good high C, produced several times³.

The sisters are comic roles unless Clorinda’s last aria is sung; then she needs to be a very capable coloratura soprano³. That aria is difficult and often cut because it interrupts the flow³. Magnifico’s Sia qualunque delle figlie is difficult even for a Rossinian expert and is sometimes omitted³. Angelina’s closing coloraturas are incredibly difficult³.

Character and music

Rossini depicts the humanity of his characters through music that bubbles and sparkles with optimism, humor and vitality⁵. The title role is unusually varied, combining sorrow and dignity with occasional flashes of spirit⁴. The introduzione draws the sisters’ shallowness and vanity and Cenerentola’s sad simplicity in a somber, minor-key ditty⁴. Her song follows the arc from a naive ditty about a king to a rondo in which she emerges a queen⁹.

Un soave non so che, her duet with Don Ramiro, evokes the dawn of young love⁴. Ramiro’s Act 2 aria Sì, ritrovarla io giuro is a heroic aria in three short movements, similar to what Rossini gave the protagonist of his Otello⁴. Don Magnifico alternates pomposity and chattering buffoonery with cruel sarcasm toward Cenerentola⁴. Dandini has something of Figaro’s amused detachment and relishes his royal disguise⁴. In the sextet, threads of coloratura pass from one singer to another⁴. The sextet music is staccato and quite simple, but Ferretti’s text is a tongue-twister³. At one point Ferretti has Dandini declare 11 rhymes in one sentence³.

Synopsis

Act 1

Dressed in rags, Angelina is destined to toil for her stepsisters and stepfather⁶. While Clorinda and Tisbe live like princesses, she does the household drudgery⁵. She consoles herself with a plaintive song about love, the Canzonetta, in which she sings of a king who married a common girl chosen for her kindness^6,1.

A hungry beggar comes to the door. Clorinda and Tisbe treat him rudely, but Angelina alone offers him bread and coffee^1,6. The beggar is Alidoro in disguise⁶. He has told Ramiro of a goodhearted young woman in the house, and Ramiro intends to find her incognito¹. Don Magnifico hopes to use the Prince’s visit to save his failing fortune¹. He has illegally used Angelina’s inheritance to set up his two daughters and needs more money⁹. Having just awakened, he tells his daughters of a dream he reads as a sign of better fortune, in the Act 1 cavatina⁶. He takes his dream of a flying donkey as a symbol of the family’s social advancement⁹.

The prince’s retainers announce a ball at which he will choose the most beautiful girl present as his bride⁶. When the family is out, Ramiro enters alone, disguised as a servant^5,1. When he sees Cinderella, each falls in love with the other at first sight, in the duet Un soave non-so che^6,1. When he asks who she is, she is overwhelmed and flees¹.

Cenerentola asks to join the others, but Magnifico refuses¹. When Alidoro asks for Magnifico’s third daughter, Magnifico pretends she is dead, and all express their confusion in the quintet Nel volto estatico⁶. He stealthily threatens to murder Cenerentola if she reveals herself¹. Left alone with her, Alidoro promises to take her to the ball himself and that God will reward her kindness¹. Dandini arrives dressed as the prince with the cavatina Come un’ape ne’ giorni d’aprile⁶. Posing as the prince, he gives the sisters a little test and appoints Magnifico chief Master of the Cellar^1,6. The ladies are outraged at the idea of marrying a servant¹. He admits he can marry only one sister and that the other should wed his valet⁶. Clorinda and Tisbe pursue him in the quartet Principino, dove siete?⁶. Alidoro then brings an unknown veiled lady to the ball, and her face resembles Cinderella’s^6,1. They all sit down to supper, feeling as if they are in a dream¹. The act ends with the finale Mi par d’essere sognando⁶. At the ball Angelina gives Ramiro one of a pair of bracelets and tells him he must seek her out^5,6.

Act 2

Magnifico frets over the competition his daughters now face from the strange lady¹. He is convinced that Clorinda and Tisbe will enjoy a future of riches and triumph, and fantasizes about the privileges of a princess’s father in Sia qualunque delle figlie⁶. Clorinda and Tisbe fail to impress the disguised Dandini, succeeding only in convincing Ramiro that they are conceited fools⁵. Nobody recognizes Angelina in her elegant gown when Alidoro brings her to the ball⁵. Cenerentola tells the false prince she has fallen in love with his servant¹. Alidoro consoles Angelina and assures her she will attend the ball once the others have left^5,6. Alidoro, now posing as the Prince’s wise tutor, advises Ramiro to follow his heart⁹.

Dandini tries to stall but is forced to admit he is the valet, not the prince, in the duet Un segreto d’importanza with Magnifico^1,5,9. The father is infuriated when the valet reveals he is not the prince at all⁶. A furious Magnifico and his daughters return home and order Cenerentola, back in rags, to serve them¹. Alidoro sabotages Ramiro’s carriage so that it breaks down in front of Magnifico’s manor¹. Ramiro recognizes Cenerentola’s bracelet on her right arm as the mate to the one he was given^1,5. The two bracelets fit together⁹. Ramiro finds Cinderella and the second bracelet and announces he will marry her, to the astonishment of Magnifico and his daughters, in the sextet Questo è un nodo avviluppato⁶.

When Ramiro threatens Cenerentola’s recalcitrant family, she asks him to forgive them¹. Alidoro gives Clorinda and Tisbe the choice between poverty and asking for forgiveness⁹. At the palace the wedding guests hail Angelina, who can scarcely believe her good fortune⁵. She begs her new husband to pardon her family, since she could never be truly happy until she knows the love of the father who rejected her and the sisters who treated her like a servant⁵. She asks only to be acknowledged, at last, as his daughter, then forgives her family and adds that her days of sitting sadly by the fire are over¹. Everyone present acknowledges that she is worthy of the throne¹. She ends the opera on the throne with Ramiro, reconciled with her repentant family⁵.

Arias and ensembles

Each number below is listed with its character and act.

The autograph facsimile has a different Alidoro aria, Fa’ silenzio, odo un rumore¹. For an 1820 revival in Rome, Rossini wrote a bravura replacement¹. The score holds some of his finest writing for solo voice and ensembles¹.

Nacqui all’affanno: the finale

The finale carries two titles, Nacqui all’affanno and Non più mesta¹. A pulse like a heartbeat runs through the aria⁸. As she recalls what she has lived, the music changes and the magic comes in⁸. The Non più mesta section is the fireworks⁸. The fast section is written staccato⁸. A flute enters at the start of it⁸. Runs cascade down two octaves⁸. DiDonato takes a staccato A up to a high C sharp, a note she would never sustain in public⁸. The conductor usually accelerates the end⁸. Before it, Angelina tells her family she is their daughter, sister and friend, in an Aria Code episode built on this aria⁸. The aria envelops the scene in a glow of tenderness⁴.

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