Southeastern Opera Workshop to present Cendrillon
Thursday, February 10, 2022
by: Tonya Lowentritt
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University’s Opera Workshop will present Cendrillon
(Cinderella) by French composer Pauline Viardot Feb. 16 – 19. Scheduled in Pottle
Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. each evening, the production is free.
“Opera Workshop first presented this delightful retelling of the familiar Cinderella
fairy tale in the spring of 2013, and there are a few twists in this version: the
stepmother is replaced by a stepfather with a shady past, and Prince Charming and
his First Chamberlain switch places to deceive Cendrillon and the other guests at
the ball,” said Opera/Music Theatre Workshop Director Chuck Effler. “But there’s still
the part about trying on the slipper!”
For a quarter of a century, starting around 1850, Viardot was one of the most
famous opera singers in Europe and Russia, and one of the most influential European
musicians until her death in 1910, Effler explained.
“After retiring from singing, she began teaching, and composed over 200 art songs
as teaching pieces for her students. Many of those songs were published and are still
sung today,” he said. “She also wrote five salon operas, short operas with piano accompaniment
meant to be presented at musical soirées in the homes of fashionable Parisians. Cendrillon
is the last and the only one to be published.”
The production will be sung in an English translation by long time guest stage
director Rachel Harris, who directed the 2013 production and returns to direct the
current production.
For more information, contact the Department of Music and Performing Arts at
985-549-2184.