BAREFOOT OPERA brings a sparkling production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella) to Rye - the first time this innovative Sussex-based opera company has performed in the town. Expect all the hallmarks of a BAREFOOT OPERA show: high quality music, a dynamic international cast of professional young singers, a small on-stage band delivering the score, and a contemporary take on a classic tale.
'Without a doubt, I have never enjoyed an opera more. Imagine a classic farcical comedy: dressing up, disguise, mistaken identities, characters spying on each other, asides to the audience, love, loss, final resolution. Now imagine it updated to the twenty-first century with its super-waste culture, its reliance on joined-up technology and its posturing and virtue-signalling by dishonest politicians, wealthy sycophants, and WAGs. Put the two together...and you have something of the message of La Cenerentola.
If this sounds absurd, think again. The singing ...was transcendent.
Angelina herself was performed by Rachel Deatherage, an American coloratura-soprano with a voice of great power and beauty whom I think we were privileged to see and hear in the early stages of a stellar career. In fact all the main performers, some recent graduates, seem destined for acclaim. Elora Ledger and Jessica Wise were superb step-sisters, singing marvellously while never letting up on their posturing frightfulness. James Beddoe was perfectly cast as an elegant and accomplished tenor prince Ramiro, while in presenting the bodyguard Dandini, Toki Hamano (dressed like a mafioso complete with shades) projected strength, power, and just a little cynicism into his stentorian baritone. Denver Martin Smith...sang an excellent Don Magnifico, managing a powerful baritone to variously sound fawning, peevish, and self-important.'
Hastings Independent Press
Come and see this ‘inventive and playful’ production at Rye Creative Centre on 19th August.
Doors open at 7pm, performance begins at 7.30pm
Tickets £20 - children 12 and under are free, if accompanied by an adult
Free parking
Bar/Refreshments
Disabled access