La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola
Theatre Royal, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
As THE flashy extension to Scottish Opera's Hope Street home continues its slow progress, it is hard not to wish that some of that capital spend had found its way on to the stage for the start of the company's season.
This co-production with Opera national du Rhin of Rossini's take on the Cinderella story has a cut-price look. Its staging is limited to half a dozen moving wardrobes, a little like chapel confession boxes, the mechanism of their mobility the only magic in a very straight-ahead reading.
Sandrine Anglade's interpretation plays up to the pantomime traditions of the story, and she is well served by the performances of Rebecca Bottone and Maire Flavin as the far-from-ugly sisters and particularly Umberto Chiummo, depping for an indisposed Graeme Danby, as their pink-suited wastrel father Don Magnifico. But in Jacopo Ferretti's version of the story the women are mere cyphers, and the pretensions and delusions of the men drive the tale, and besides Chiummo, only Richard Burkhard's Dandini really emerges with credit. Tenor Nico Darmanin, as the prince, has a small voice, and Irish baritone John Molloy's performance as his tutor Alidoro suffered intonation problems in his solos on this opening night.
The best voice on stage, by a mile, is that of young Russian mezzo Victoria Yarovaya in the title role, and she is undoubtedly a talent to watch. Crucially, the mix does come together on the ensemble work, with the conclusion of act one giving the evening a welcome lift. But with the orchestra, under William Lacey, also sounding tentative in the overture, this Cinderella looks and sounds worryingly provincial, and that is not something you would previously have said of Scottish Opera.
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