Opera at USC: Amelia al Ballo and Cendrillon

Amelia al Ballo – Amelia wants to go to the ball so badly, and she goes to great lengths to get there. This one-act opera buffa (comic opera), composed in 1936 when Gian Carlo Menotti was in his mid-twenties, was the composer’s first mature opera and first critical success. Farcical events and even a passionate musical argument unfold as a young socialite plots to overcome the obstacles to get her there. The composer of the opera, sung in Italian with English supertitles, won a Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Consuland for The Saint of Bleecker Street. He founded the noted Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy, and its American counterpart, Spoleto Festival USA.

Cendrillon – Cendrillon, a quirky chamber operetta with dialogue in three acts, is based on the Cinderella story. A Prince, stepsisters, disguises, and of course, love, is sung in French with English supertitles. Born into a prominent musical family of the nineteenth century, Pauline García Viardot (1821-1910) was highly regarded as an opera singer and actress during her lifetime. She wrote both the libretto and score for her final two operas, including her last, Cendrillon. When composer Pauline Viardot was 83 in 1904, she premiered Cendrillon in her Paris salon.