Cenerentola, Christmas Day.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Did anyone else see this? I've just caught up with it on the i-Player:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pm7tz/Cenerentola/

I don't usually like Rossini (too many coloratura trills, scales and warbles for me), but I really enjoyed this film. Some excellent singing (I think the singers mimed to themselves, so no gasps for breath or screeching to be heard over the orchestra) and playing, and I was greatly impressed with the filming - the scenes introduced and linked by animation which also "leaked" into the "real-life" performance, too (the drunken Don Magnifico had purple bubbles hovering around his head a la the Asterix cartoons). An hugely enjoyable pantomime, well worth seeing - available until next Tuesday.

It has a three-minute "introduction" by Katie Derham who is referred to as the "principal talent" on the i-Player page! She isn't; Lena Belkina is!

[Stanley Stewart]

Snap, fhg! I recorded the programme to hard disk and it's been a tonic to watch it this afternoon, on a really dreich day oop north. The sheer bravura of the final aria brought a resounding cheer from my armchair presence, too.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Yes, I watched it when it was broadcast on Christmas Day, my appetite whetted by Richard Osborne's lovely Building a Library on Cenerentola a few days before. I thought the animations were excellently done, giving the whole thing a seasonal fairy tale feel which isn't really there in the opera... we even had Cinders lose a slipper as she made her swift departure from the ball, whereas Rossini had her lose a bracelet (one of a pair, of course, for easy matching purposes!). Nicely sung, especially by the lower-voiced men - Simone Alberghini's Dandini especially good - so it was a pity there were so many cuts, most notably the buffo duet for Dandini and Don Magnifico where the former reveals he isn't really the prince, but his valet!

I agree Lena Belkina was lovely in the title role, if vocally not able to match the very best on disc. But a very pleasurable film to pass a couple of hours slumped in the armchair after Christmas lunch!

[Dave2002]

Pity I missed this earlier - I'd have put it on my PVR. I'll see if I can watch it before it disappears. I thought at first it'd be the Glyndebourne production, but this is done on location in some interesting places in Italy. i wonder if it's going to be released on DVD or Blu Ray.