Dr. Andrew Granade, speaker

After countless rejections, librettist Jacopo Ferretti finally found a winner when he pitched an adaptation of La Cenerentola (Cinderella) to rising composer Gioachino Rossini. What followed was a whirlwind—forty-six days of feverish collaboration, borrowed arias, and bold departures from the familiar fairy tale script. Gone were the glass slipper and fairy godmother and, in their place, clever disguises and a sorcerous philosopher. The result? Cinderella—a comic opera that gleefully blends the traditional and the unexpected into something unmistakably Rossinian. Join us as we explore how this last-minute idea became one of opera’s most enchanting reinventions.