The girl next door
Andrea Andermann, the producer who brought you Tosca in the Settings and at the Times of Tosca, Traviata in Paris, and Rigoletto in Mantova, is preparing for a telecast of La Cenerentola, to be performed and broadcast in two consecutive days, as per libretto, and filmed inside several palaces of Turin, with the Reggia Sabauda (the Savoy Royal Palace) as Ramiro’s abode.
In a press conference earlier this week, the identity of the singers was a closely-held secret, but Carlo Verdone, a very famous comedian and movie director (who will be in charge of the event), mentioned that one of the singers will be Ruggero Raimondi. I have done my research and apparently the rest of the cast will be: stunning Georgian beauty Ketevan Kemoklidze as Cenerentola, Edgardo Rocha as Don Ramiro, Simone Alberghini as Dandini and Lorenzo Regazzo as Alidoro.
Ruggero Raimondi? Was Melchiorre Luise unavailable?
No Juan Diego? Not interested.
Ketevan Kemoklidze as Donna Elvira a few years ago, I assume.
Update: I have heard that every single recitative will be cut; that Magnifico’s second act aria and his duet with Dandini will be cut; that every effort will be made to bring the story more similar to the classic fairy tale (and as a matter of fact the TV commercial shows a glass slipper); and that Kevotan Kemodlidze’s participation is in jeopardy: she is still “under review” and may be substituted with an Ukrainian mezzo whose name I have not been able to learn. Considering that the performance is on a couple of weeks, this looks like it’s going to be an unmitigated disaster.
As I know the participation of Raimondi is in doubt and Kemoklidze already left the project.
here is video of Lena Belkina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxICxKN09vY