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Joyce DiDonato Uncelebrated
Last night, along with every Italian tourist in Manhattan, I went
to see Massenet's Cendrillon, hoping for something more than the
elevator music which characterised last year's Massenet effort, Thais.
Let's just say it was perfect, not only with the box office star Joyce DiDonato
as Cendrillon in a Disney princess ballgown, but with the Stephanie Coote as
spell-bindingly wicked step mother Madame de la Haltière whose menacing
contralto strode the baritonal plain. The entire evening was captivating, the
baddies and the mindlessly grasping throng suitably ludicrous, and the
hilarious dancing reminiscent of the Time Warp, on such a huge scale that it
must have been devised through the wrong end of a long - distance telescope.
And yet, despite everything, one was left strangely unmoved. Perhaps it was the
simplicity of the story, or the consistent daintiness of the score, or the
total absence of dramatic tension. Joyce DiDonato is a global diva, yet her
stupendous delivery received no ovations, nor did the hugely comic jokes
receive more than a warm titter. The Italian tourists reserved their persistent
yelling and chatter for themselves and the people to whom they constantly
chattered on their cell phones. Massenet's own strictures about not waiting for
inspiration came to mind. Sometimes perfection just isn't enough.
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