Cinderella

Anyone who has ever been to a BARN OPERA production, knows that artistic director Joshua Collier, is anything but traditionalist. He uses the music from the masterworks of the operatic literature, and provides insightful, often novel, perspectives on the warhorses of the art form. His treatment of Rossini’s effervescent Cinderella is no exception. There is a concern today that opera is only for adults and must be serious in order to be honest to the art form, but Collier’s take is the inverse – “we must have the young people get involved to show them the value of the art form.” And in this production, kids there will be.

“We are setting this in a “Seussian-esque” world, with bright colors, crazy costumes, and an incredibly energetic production, that at only around an hour and a half, is perfectly suited for kids.”
The story of Rossini’s Cinderella is the story that we all know, save for a few character differences. Most notably, there is not a fairy godmother in the show. There is a philosopher named Alidoro, that uses logic to help Cinderella.

“But what kind of Cinderella is it without a little magic?” Collier says with a Grinchy smile.

Normally at BARN OPERA there are supertitles with English translation – as all operas are presented in the original language. However, with this opera, there will be no supertitles at all, and the production will be designed to be able to communicate the story without the assistance of the supertitles. Young kids can’t read the supertitles anyway! I want to make sure that everyone gets the same magical operatic experience, regardless of how old you are! We will explain the situation and make it so that everyone knows what’s going on, such that even though there is a language barrier between the Italian that is being sung, and the predominantly American audience, there will not be a comprehension barrier!”

It seems that BARN OPERA’s Cinderella, and Collier’s production, have more than a few tricks, and a little magic up their sleeves, and we cannot wait to see what they do with this piece, and to hear the beautifully lyric music of Rossini in the intimate venue of the BARN OPERA House.