Musical highlights

The rapturous duet Cendrillon and the Prince sing at first meeting surges with newly unstable, expressive chromatic harmonies, as if the force of their love is so great that is has upset the opera’s elegant mock-18th-century kingdom. Listen to how the two lovers – still strangers to one another – don’t actually sing together until the very end of the duet.

The exquisite fairy-music which sets the scene for the magic forest casts its own musical spell. Radiant chorus writing and glinting tuned percussion sprinkle fairy-dust on the Fée’s own lovely melody, which sits right at the top of the soprano range – imitating the sound of magical bells or chimes.