[See first entry under Pantomime Scripts for an 1803 Cinderella ballet.]

Cinderella (La Cenerentola) [A ballet]. Choreography and libretto by Filippo Bertini (after Perrault); music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. First performed at La Scala, Milan, 26 December 1818.

Cinderella (Cendrillon) [A ballet]. Choreography by Albert (Francois-Ferdinand Decombe); music by Fernando Sor. First performed King’s Theatre, London, 26 March 1822. Then at the Paris Opera, 3 March 1823. Revived, with Rives choreography, at Royal Theater, Amsterdam, 1824. Revived again at Covent Garden, London, 6 May 1834, under title of The Fairy Slipper.

Cinderella (Volshebnyi Bashmachok) [A Russian ballet]. Choreography by Wenzel Reisinger; music by Wilhelm Carl Muldorfer; libretto by Karl Fedorovich Val’ts. First performed by the Bolshoi Ballet at the Bolshoi Theater, Moskow, 14 December 187l.

Cinderella [A Russian ballet]. Choreography by Enrico Cecchetti, Lev Ivanov, and Marius Petipa; music by Boris Shel; libretto by Lidia Paskova. First performed at Maryansky Theater, St. Petersburg, 1 December 1893.

Cinderella: A Ballet. Choreography by Fred Farren; music by Sidney Jones; libretto and cos. by C. Wilhelm. London, Empire Theatre, 6 January 1906.

Cinderella (Cendrillon) [A ballet]. Choreography by Michael Fokin; music by Frederic baron D’Erlanger. First London performance by Ballet Russe, Covent Garden, 19 July 1938. First American performance, Fifty First Street Theater, New York, 15 November 1940.

[This ballet has continued to be performed often in recent years. A motion picture (17 1/2 minutes) was made of excerpts of the 1940 American production. D’Erlanger’s score was arranged for orchestra and then for piano. N.b., D’Erlanger’s Cendrillon, ballet en trois tableaux d’apres le Conte de Perrault: Scenes et dances de Michel Fokine, London: Schott, c. 1940.]

Cinderella (Zolushka) [A ballet]. Music by Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; choreography by Rostislav Zakharov; libretto by Nikolai Volkov. First performance Bolshoi Theater, Moskow, 21 November 1945. Revived by the Finnish State Opera in Helsinki, 4 December 1957. A movie was made of the production in 1960, dir. Alexander Row and Rostislav Zakharov.

Prokofiev’s Cinderella, Op. 87, is the most often performed of all the Cinderella ballets. In 1949 he published separately an orchestral version, Cinderella: Suite no. 1, Op. 107, from which the Cinderella Waltz was rendered as a piano piece and published separately. Other notable productions of Prokofiev’s Cinderella ballet include the following:

Choreography by Konstantin Sergeev. Kirov Theater, Leningrad, 8 April 1946; this production was brought to the New York Metropolitan Opera House, 11 September 1964.

Choreography by Frederick Ashton. Scenery and costumes by Jean-Denis Malches. First performed by the Sadler’s Wells Company at the London Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 23 December 1948; revived 23 December 1965. This is the most famous of all productions, with Margot Fonteyn as Cinderella. First U.S. performance: Sadler’s Wells Ballet, Metropolitan Opera, New York, with Margo Fonteyn 18 October 1949. See the Dictionary Catalog of the Dance Collection (G. K. Hall, 1974), III, 1385-1390, for reviews of this production.

[A motion picture of the Ashton-Prokofiev Cinderella was made in 1957 (89 minutes), which was aired on NBC-TV 29 April 1957, Monday, at 8:00 p.m. Executive Producer: Mort Abrahams. Director: Clark Jones. Music by Prokofiev. Choreography by Frederick Ashton. Settings by Otis Riggs. Costumes by Jean-Denis Malcles. Conductor: Robert Irving. Dancers: Margot Fonteyn (Cinderella); Michael Somes (Prince); Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan (The Ugly Sisters); Alexander Grant (Jester); Julia Farron (Faery Godmother); Merle Park, Elaine Fifield, Annette Page, Svetlana Beriosova (the Seasons); Franklin White, Pirmin Treeu, Ray Powell, Douglas Steuart, Leslie Edwards, Basil Thompson, Julia Faron, and artists of the Sadler’s Wells Company.]

Choreography by Alfred Rodrigues. La Scala, Milan 1955-1956.

Choreography by Jean Combes. Strasbourg Festival. Theatre Municipal de Strasbourg, 5 June 1959.

Choreography by Franjo Horvat. Sarajevo Opera Ballet, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, 1960.

Choreography by Wazlaw Orlikowsky. Raymundo de Larraine Company. Theatre des Champs-Elysses, Paris, 4 December 1963.

Choreography by William Farr Christensen. Ballet West, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1 April 1970.

Choreography by Ben Stevenson. Lisner Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 24 April 1970.

Choreography by Frederick Ashton, reproduced by Robert Mead. The Australian Ballet. Australian premiere. Elizabethan Theatre, Newtown (Sydney), 1972. John Lanchbery, musical director and conductor of the Elizabethan Trust Sydney Orchestra. Alan Abbott, resident conductor. Scenery and costumes by Kristian Fredrikson. The music for the Fairy Godmother’s variation in Act I taken from Prokofieff’s Visions Fugitive. Cast: Lucette Aldous or Marilyn Rowe or Gailene Stock (Cinderella); Kelvin Coe or Garth Welch or Gary Norman (Prince); Frederick Ashton and Robert Helpmann (Cinderella’s step-sisters); Colin Peasley (Cinderella’s father); Kathleen Geldard or Josephine Jason or Carolyn Rappel (Fairy Godmother).

[The program to this production, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Australian Ballet, includes excellent photographs by Lord Snowden of the cast, the stepsisters (Ashton and Helpmann) putting on their make-up, Ashton working on the choreography, Margot Fonteyn as Cinderella in the first English production of the ballet, and several of Kristian Fredrikson’s costume designs.]

Choreography by Tom Schilling for the Berlin Comic Opera, conducted by Siegfried Kratzer. Sets and costumes by Francisco Nieva. Deutschen Fernsehfunks and Defa-Studio Film, dir. Heide Draexter-Just. 1977. A V.I.E.W Videotape was made of this production. 75 minutes. 1987. Cast: Hannelore Bey (Cinderella), Roland Gawlick (Prince), Gisele Ambras (Stepmother), Hildegard Ruhl and Karin Vetter (Stepsisters), Hans Dieter Schiebel (Father), Barbara Pfundheller (Fairy Godmother), Frank Bey (Master of Ceremonies), Jack Theis (King).

Choreography by Paul Mejia and George Balanchine. Artistic Director: Maria Tallchief. Suzanne Farrell as Cinderella. Chicago City Ballet. Thanksgiving 1981.

[This production became an annual event. The production was revived by the Fort Worth Ballet and brought to New York at the City Center Theater April 10-15, 1990.]

Choreography by Maguy Marin for the Lyon Opera Ballet. 1985. Toured US in 1987, 1989, 1992. Cast: Francoise Joullie (Cinderella), Bernard Espinasse (Prince), Nathalie Delassis (space-age Godmother), and Chantal Requena (the nastiest of Stepmothers). Lighting by John Spradbery.

[Avant-garde, bleak Expressionist production, with dancers in grotesque masks made by Monique Luyton and lumpish padding designed by Monserrat Casanova, turning them into life-size dolls in a three-story dollhouse set, with baby gurgling and other nursery sounds spliced into the soundtrack, the work of composer Jean Schwarz. The first performance was in Lyon, the 100th in New York, the 200th in Beijing. “A vision of lost childhood, of innocence seen from a distance”–Anna Kisselgoff (New York Times). A full-length TV version was made of the production by SVT-1 and RM Arts in association with La Sept. Channel 4 and ZDF in 1987, with a videotape issued by RM Arts Associates, 1989. See the entry under Movies.]

Cinderella: The Classic Fairytale of Magic and Romance. [A ballet]. Choreography by Matthew Hart. Music by Serge Prokofiev. Principal Conductor Daryl Griffith. The London City Ballet, for the 1995-1996 season. Design by Johan Engels, assisted by John Stevenson. Lighting Design by Peter Teigen. Scenic Artist John Campbell. Costume Supervisor Shirley Lawrenson.

Cast: Amanda Armstrong (Cinderella), Tracey Newham Alvey (Fairy Godmother), (Jodie Bennett (Stepsister), Samantha Carlson (Stepsister), Avril Hurwitz (Stepmother), Terry Hayworth (Cinderella’s Father), Paul Watson (Buttons/Lead Grasshopper), Conor O’Brien (Dancing Master), Artists of London City Ballet (Tailors, Dress Makers and Hair Dressers), Emma Hyatt (Spring Fairy), Clair Thomas (Summer Fairy), Virginnia Viney (Autumn Fairy), Laura Hussey (Winter Fairy), Artists of London City Ballet (Grasshoppers and Dragonflies. Francesco Villicich (Prince), Adam Pudney (Major Domo), Marius Els, Darren Panton, Simon Smith, Dincer Solomon (Prince’s Companions), Artists of London City Ballet (Ballroom Guests and Dragonflies). Fantasy Couples (Artists of London City Ballet. 

Synopsis of Scenes: Act I: Cinderella’s Living Room/Transformation. Act II: Ballroom. Act III: Cinderella’s Living Room/Fantasy Land.

[Hart’s energetic choreography and plotting of the ballet draw upon pantomime traditions, not only in the introduction of Buttons into the plot but in the use of fairyland pastoral material in the transformation scene. The fairies of the four seasons who perform the transformation are costumed like seasonal flower fairies, with solo dances amidst the troups of dragonflies and grasshoppers. Hart’s choreography is remarkably clever in its adjustments to Prokofiev’s score, which Hart modified for his production, with the approval of the Prokofiev family. Mindful that Prokofiev wanted the ballet to be an allegory of human behavior and relationships, Hart has heightened the joys and sorrows of Cinderella, the ardor of the Prince, the timidity of the father, and the violence of the stepmother and the coquettish, but awkward, sisters. When the Prince comes, seeking the owner of the slipper, the ugly stepfamily conceal Cinderella in a trunk, until Buttons reveals her whereabouts, thus precipitating the joyous conclusion. The lavish costumes (130 in all) carry an air of nostalgia that strikes childhood memories of classic fairy tales.]

Prokofieff’s Cinderella. An Adventures in Motion Pictures Production. 1997-1998 season. Piccadilly Theatre, London. Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne. Design by Lez Brotherston. Lighting Design by Rick Fisher. Sound Design by Simon King. Musical Director David Frame, with The New London Orchestra. Orchestration by Daryl Griffith.

Cast: Saranne Curtin (Cinderella), Ewan Wardrop (Harry, the Pilot), Isabel Mortimer (Sybil, the Stepmother), Michaela Meazza and Emily Piercy (Stepsisters Vivien and Irene), Scott Ambler, Ben Wright, and Andrew Walkinshaw (Stepbrothers Malcolm, Vernon, and Elliot), Barry Atkinson (Robert, the father), Teresa Barker and Jacqueline Anderson (Girlfriends Maggie and Betty), Phil Hill and Neil Penlington (Boyfriends Buster and Stan), William Kemp and Andrew Corbett (Heroes), Theo Klinkard (Angel); plus dogs, airmen, delivery man, air-raid wardens, people in the blackout and during the air-raid.

Synopsis: Prologue. Act I: Sc. 1: The Family House, New Years Eve 1940; Sc. 2: The Blackout. Act II: Sc. 1: The Starlight Rooms, a Dance Hall, New Years Eve; Sc. 2: The London Underground; Sc. 3: The Embankment; Sc. 4: A Convalescence Home; Sc. 5: A Railway Station, some months later.

[This acclaimed production sets the drama in the London blitz. It begins with a family portrait of Cinderella, her father and mother; the mother disappears and is replaced by the stepmother and her five children. The father becomes wounded in an air-raid and spends the rest of the ballet in progressive states of incapacitation in a wheelchair. Cinderella is abused by the stepfamily and is denied the privilege of attending the dance. An angel appears and provides her with a white Harley Davidson with a side car that takes her to the dance. She wows them all, especially the Pilot, whom the stepmother tries to seduce. The Pilot and Cinderella slip away and cosummate their love. After another bombing that hits the dance hall Cinderella wanders thestreets of London then is wounded herself. She and the pilot get together again in the convalescence home, where her stepmother tries to suffocate her with a pillow. In the final scene they are reunited and depart through gate 12 of the train station, with the blessing of the Angel.]

[Cinderella. Music by Prokofiev; choreography by Matthew Bourne. American premiere. Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles. March 28-May 3, 1999]

Cinderella [A ballet]. Choreography by Ludmilla Chiriaeff; music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. First performance Les Grands Ballets Cana-diens, Montreal, 1962/1963 season. A motion picture of this production was made in 1963, with ballerina Margaret Mercies in the title role. 28 1/2 minutes. National Film Board of Canada.

Cinderella [A ballet]. Choreography by Laverne Meyer; music by Robert Steward. First performed by the Northern Dance Theatre in the Forum Theatre, Billingham, England, 14 February 1973.

Cinderella [A ballet]. Music by Johann Strauss. Arranged by Joseph Baver and adapted by Christopher Tadman-Robins. Choreography by Robert de Warren. Scenario by H. Regel. Adapted by Robert de Warren. Design by Peter Farmer. Palace Theatre, Manchester. 7 to 11 December 1982. Seven performances.

[The program notes indicate that this is the only ballet composed specially by Johann Strauss. It was last performed in England in 1919. “Finding a forgotten score… was exactly the clever and enterprising discovery ballet companies should be making, and Northern Ballet Theatre deserve every credit for reviving it” – Nicholas Dromgoole, Sunday Telegraph.]

Cinderella [A ballet]. Choreography by Christopher Gable. Drama by Gable and Ian Burton. Music by Philip Feeney. First performed by Northern Ballet Theatre. Premiered September 1993 at Shef-field’s Lyceum Theatre.

[More of Grimm than Perrault, with ravens pecking out the eyes of the two stepsisters and the stepmother as well, with Frazerian and Freudian overtones. The ballet opens with an apple picking scene in which Cinderella’s brother is killed in a ladder accident; her sickly mother dies shortly thereafter, and ghost of brother and mother serve as fairy guardians who preside over the action from their trapezes. Cinderella’s father (Jeremy Kerridge), driven to drink, makes a pass at Cinders (Jayne Regan). Rather than at a ball the prince (William Walker) falls for Cinders at a feast, gets angry at her drunken father who spills wine on his host. But Cinderella and the Prince get together, the father is reformed, and the stepfamily punished.]

Cinderella… a Tale of Survival. Music written and performed by Ferron, with all women’s band: Barbara Rigbie, Jamie Sieber, Shelley Jennings, Joy Julks. A Dance Brigade presentation. Alice Arts Theater, University of California at Berkeley. Four performances, 12 to 14 December 1997.

[Age appropriate material.]

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