Opera Scotland

Cenerentola 1953Glyndebourne Opera

Read more about the opera Cenerentola

The 1953 Edinburgh season by the company from Glyndebourne consisted of three excellent stagings, of which the most popular was Rossini's La cenerentola. The other two were The Rake's Progress, receiving its British premiere, and Idomeneo - not seen in Scotland since the ground-breaking Glasgow performances of 1934.

Cenerentola was the first of a successful group of Glyndebourne Rossini productions usually conducted by Vittorio Gui, but always directed by Carl Ebert and designed by Oliver Messel. The almost unknown Count Ory and the more obviously popular Barber came to Edinburgh in successive years.  A team of regular singers was also kept together - the tenor Juan Oncina, baritone Sesto Bruscantini and buffo bass Ian Wallace. Marina de Gabarain's rapid vibrato is unusual, and not universally admired, but it projects plenty of character and is reminiscent of the brilliant Spanish mezzo Conchita Supervia, who sang the part at Covent Garden twenty years earlier. This cast made a recording of the opera which is still in many ways a classic, largely due to the wonderfully lyrical and unforced conducting of Gui.