Cinderella - Vienna Version for Children

In Alma Deutscher's take on the familiar fairy-tale, the story revolves around music. Cinderella is a talented composer, who constantly hears beautiful melodies in her mind. She is envied and bullied by her stepfamily because of her extraordinary talent. The Prince is a poet, and at the end, he will find Cinderella not through her shoe, but through a melody. Alma said: “I didn’t want Cinderella just to be a pretty girl who wins the prince because she has small feet. I wanted her to succeed because she is talented.” The Vienna State Opera commissioned from Alma a short version for younger children (75') This version premiered at the State Opera in 2018.

Synopsis: Cinderella lives in an opera house with her stepmother, the manager of an opera house, and her stepsisters Griselda and Zibaldona, two singers who vastly overestimate their own talents. She is herself a young composer who is envied and bullied by her stepfamily because of her extraordinary talent. They force her to copy musical scores for nights on end. In her loneliness, Cinderella increasingly flees into a fairy tale fantasy world. Emeline, a fairy, gives her a book of poems written by the Prince, who would rather be a poet than the future ruler. When the Royal Minister invites the stepmother and her two daughters to a masked ball in the castle, Emeline conjures up a beautiful dress for Cinderella, whose stepmother had forbidden her to go with them. Cinderella wins the Prince's affection when she sings to him a poem of his which she has set to music. At midnight she leaves the ball in a hurry. The prince searches for the girl whose melody touched his heart, even though he can only remember the beginning of her song. He finally finds Cinderella in the opera house, and she is the only girl who can finish the song.