Cendrillon

“We have done our best to send you soaring through the beautiful blue countries”, was the promise of the authors when the Salle Favart rose again from its ashes. This was the perfect opportunity to perform this fairy tale in which a fairy godmother arranges for Cendrillon to go to the ball where she meets her Prince Charming and leaves him just as midnight is striking. Cain kept all the episodes from Perrault’s story, and added the Chêne des Fées scene (Fairies’ Oak) which incidentally became the highlight of the production. The treatment of the libretto is simple and poetic, respecting the fairy story while transforming its original sadism into situation comedy. This humour, the purview of the stepmother and her daughters, is complemented by Pandolfe’s melancholy bonhomie, the noble feelings of Cendrillon and the Prince and the fantastic realm of the Fairies. The score is enriched by these elements, the refined musical writing shimmers, the orchestration is luminous and the vocal writing particularly demanding, especially in the case of La Fée, whose elaborate language is full of trills and vocalises. Completed in the summer of 1895, Cendrillon was replaced on the bill by Sapho, since the Opéra-Comique’s management was keen to pay a final homage to Daudet. Although this spectacular opera was not premiered until later, it had the perfect venue in the new Salle Favart as Albert Carré, appointed director, wanted to show off the theatre in all its modernity. Julia Guiraudon, the librettist’s future wife, was a triumphant success in the title role alongside Blanche Deschamps-Jehin (La Haltière), Lucien Fugère (Pandolfe) and Georgette Bréjean-Gravière (La Fée). Never before had a musical work and its staging been so well-matched, to the extent that the Fairy Godmother’s magic powers became indistinguishable from the new magic of electricity revolutionising theatres.