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| Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera |
Cinderella #351 Cinderella and Company: Backstage at the Opera With Cecilia Bartoli (Hoelterhoff, M.)
Once upon a time, in Italy, were two young men named Gioacchino Rossini and Jacopo Ferretti. The year was 1816, and they were under contract to come up with a new opera. Fast. So they did what many others have done, before and since: they turned to a story they already knew, and gussied it up quite a bit. The story was La Cenerentola, and the leading role is Cinderella. Ms.Bartoli's life was enough fairy tale elements to make this role an especially close fit. Born "on a modest street in Rome", where "the Fiat is the coach of choice" . Although little Cecilia was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she had something better: talent. And though she did not have a fairy godmother, she did get "a lucky break". All of the pieces came together to propel her to fame. Soon, she was one of the most famous opera singers in the world. In October, 1997, Pulitzer prize winning journalist Manuela Hoelterhoff began work on a biography of Ms. Bartoli. She would spend the next two years of the life following Cecilia Bartoli as she sang in London, Rome, Paris, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Venice,Italy. The result is: Cinderella and Company: Backstage at the Opera with Cecilia Bartoli (1998) New York: Alfred A. Knopf
Notes: See Cinderella # 116 and Cinderella #137 for other versions of Rossini's La Cenerentola
