On October 27, the New York City Opera (NYCO) unveiled a new, updated production of Jules Massenet's charming opera "Cendrillon" (1899), an opera the company also examined in the mid-1980s. The second of eight hearings, on November 1, is discussed here.

Soprano Cassandre Berthon, as the long-suffering Lucette, known as Cendrillon (Cinderella) and destined for a happy ending with tenor Frédéric Antoun, as le Prince Charmant (Prince Charming); coloratura soprano Katherine Jolly as la Fée (Fairy Godmother); baritone Eugene Brancoveanu as Pandolfe, Lucette's harried father; and soprano Lielle Berman and mezzo-soprano Rebecca Ringle as Noémie and Dorothée, Lucette's exceedingly silly stepsisters, all new to NYCO, brought piquant lyric voices to Massenet's score of sheer gossamer, with Wagnerian underpinnings, under the sympathetic baton of George Manahan. The one veteran principal was mezzo Joyce Castle, in fine voice and capable of the highest of dudgeons, as a formidable Madame de la Haltière, Lucette's haughty stepmother. Michael Segarski, Kyungmook Yum, Jeffrey Picón, and Raymond Ayers took supporting roles.

Frédéric Antoun as le Prince Charmant & Cassandre Berthon as Lucette photo by Carol Rosegg

I've experienced half-a-dozen performances of "Cendrillon"--at NYCO, San Francisco Opera, and Manhattan School of Music--and this is just the second time I've heard a male Prince Charming, a part written for female voice and usually sung by a mezzo-soprano. Antoun made such a charming, good-looking prince, though, that it was not hard to forgive him for not being a mezzo.

An international effort, this production is owned by L'Opéra de Montréal and was designed for L'Opéra national du Rhin and co-produced with the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe. Director and choreographer Renaud Doucet and set and costume designer André Barbe have set their "Cendrillon" in the 1950s, which means hairnets, housecoats, harlequin glasses, pouffy slippers, and over-the-top high fashion finery-think Lucy and Ethel dress up--with huge bows and in leopard skin pattern. The opera opens in a pink and aquamarine pastel kitchen with oversized appliances. Berthon's Lucette makes her entrance, sliding down the door of the oven she's been scrubbing, to lament her circumstances in the plaintive little air with the refrain "Travaille, Cendrillon" (Work, Cinderella) and, singing fioriture, Jolly's Fée makes an initial appearance, coming through the kitchen radio. Both Fairy Godmother and stepsister Noémie look like Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo. La Fée and her fairy band wear white aprons to protect their good clothes. La Fée's male minions resemble Mr. Clean. When La Fée sends Lucette to the mirror to see the gold gown she's conjured up for the waif to wear to the ball, prompting Lucette to exclaim, excitedly, "Je suis reine," it put one in mind of the television series "Queen for a Day." The Formica kitchen table became Cendrillon's coach, its wheels the fairies' twirling umbrellas.

This prince boasted a letter sweater, a jukebox, a pin-up girl calendar, and a staff of attendants either as fey as Liberace or thugs out of a TV crime show. The palace ballroom might have been a Vegas nightclub, complete with showgirls. The procession of beauties, vying for the prince's heart, were prom or homecoming queens, contestants on a quiz show, or candidates for Miss America, showing off dubious talents, some of which wouldn't have been out of place on the "Ed Sullivan Show."
Hero and heroine found each other again, not in an enchanted wood, but a drive-in movie theater, showing films of royal weddings. During an interlude, the Mr. Clean figures passed popcorn out to the audience.
Lucette and Pandolfe took temporary refuge from Mme de la Haltière et filles in one of those Levittown "little boxes" that are "all made out of ticky tacky" and "all look just the same," with a white picket fence and pink plastic flamingos on the lawn.

Some operaphiles got huffy about all the Fifties kitsch, but, hey, "Cendrillon" is no sacrosanct, deathless masterpiece. A traditional production works, but so does this.

Remaining performances of "Cendrillon" take place on November 3 at 1:30 pm, 7 at 7:30 pm, 10 at 8 pm, 13 at 7:30 pm, 16 at 8 pm, and 18 at 1:30 pm. Tickets from $16 to 130 are available at the New York State Theater box office at Lincoln Center, on line at www.nycopera.com, or by telephoning 212/721-6500. For a 15% discount on tickets priced at $45 and up and purchased before November 5, enter code PCCN on line when selecting seats, or mention code PCCN when calling in an order.