Divested of its traditional attributes โ glass slipper and pumpkin carriage โ and dominated by a tyrannical stepfather instead of a cruel stepmother, Rossiniโs la Cenerentola plays with these most conventional of fairyโtale characters. Nonetheless Cinderella lives in a closed world devoid of tenderness and under the yoke of the tormentor whom she protects. Deep beneath her goodness smoulders a fire that her encounter with the prince will set freeโฆ Guillaume Gallienne subtly highlights the halftones of this dramma giocoso, somewhere between opera buffa and opera seria, and ranging from sombre melancholy to the burlesque.