Cendrillon

Songs by Pauline Viardot and her contemporaries by way of prologue with the participation of Mireille Delunsch.

The muse of Gounod and Berlioz, but also of George Sand and Turgenev, Pauline Viardot dominates the second half of 19th century music thanks to her caliber as performer and organizer of cultural life. A music lover to such a degree that she sacrificed her fortune to purchase the original manuscript of Don Giovanni – which she eventually donated to the Conservatoire – Pauline Viardot always preferred to support the others' works than to promote her own. Still, she was an outstanding composer and contributed, together with her contemporaries Clara Schumann and Augusta Holmes, to introduce women into a milieu that was almost reserved for men. Two years after Massenet's spectacular Cendrillon, this is an intimate version of Perrault's fairy tale as if concocted by the fireside. Surrounded by colorful characters yet protected by an exuberant fairy, Cinderella is brought back to a new life in this short work to be performed among friends.