The Most Popular Fairy Tale of All Time Serves as Inspiration for Rossini`s La Cenerentola, Airingon Great Performances at the Met on PBS August 15

This Cinderella story has no fairy godmother or glass slipper - rather "bel
canto," or beautiful singing
NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
Over the centuries, the story of Cinderella and her cruel stepmother and ugly
stepsisters has been interpreted in countless ways across different genres.
Gioachino Rossini`s La Cenerentola is perhaps the most famous operatic version
of the Cinderella story, and it is like no other interpretation. This opera has
no fairy godmother, no pumpkin that turns into a carriage, and no glass slipper.
However, unlike most other operas, it has a happy ending. The production is
rated TV-PG and will air on Great Performances at the Met in HD on Saturday,
August 15 at Noon on PBS (check local listings) and on WNET/THIRTEEN on
Thursday, August 20 at 9 p.m.

Great Performances at the Met is a presentation of THIRTEEN in association with
WNET.ORG - one of America`s most prolific and respected public media providers.

Mezzo soprano Elīna Garaňca, who played Rosina in another one of Rossini`s
operas, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, now claims the role of the title heroine in La
Cenerentola; her Prince Charming is played by Lawrence Brownlee. "It`s actually
a coincidence that I`m returning in another of Rossini`s works," admits Garaňca.
Of the opera`s most memorable coloratura showpiece, "Nacqui alľ affanno,"
Garaňca says "for me it`s the Olympics - adrenaline at its highest. To get
through it, I must switch on all the buttons in the computer in my head and
body."

Italian opera in the early 19th century focused heavily on the range,
inflection, and tone of the human voice; this style became known as "bel canto,"
or "beautiful singing." While many opera singers tried to wow audiences by
improvising with this technique and adding trills and lilts to their singing,
Rossini`s operas, especially La Cenerentola, had bel canto already built right
into the scores.

Great Performances at the Met: La Cenerentola is the tenth of 11 productions
airing this season on the series. The performance is sung in Italian with
English surtitles. Maestro Maurizio Benini conducts, as veteran baritone
Alessandro Corbelli demonstrates his impeccable comic timing to match the
gravitas of Met favorite John Relyea; the librettist is Jacopo Ferretti.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment
for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television
viewers, and PBS. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is
provided by Toll Brothers.

Visit Great Performances Online at www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information
on this and other Great Performances programs. For the Met, Mia Bongiovanni and
Elena Park are Supervising Producers, and Louisa Briccetti and Victoria
Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. For Great
Performances, Bill O`Donnell is Series Producer; David Horn is Executive
Producer.

About WNET.ORG

New York public media company WNET.ORG is a pioneering provider of television
and web content. The parent of Thirteen, WLIW21 and Creative News Group,
WNET.ORG brings such acclaimed broadcast series and websites as Great
Performances, Worldfocus, Nature, American Masters, Charlie Rose, Wide Angle,
Secrets of the Dead, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Visions, Consuelo Mack
WealthTrack,Wild Chronicles, Miffy and Friends, and Cyberchase to national and
international audiences. Through its wide range of channels and platforms,
WNET.ORG serves the entire New York City metro area with unique local
productions, broadcasts, and innovative educational and cultural projects. In
all that it does, WNET.ORG pursues a single, overarching goal - to create media
experiences of lasting significance for New York, America, and the world. For
more information, visit www.wnet.org.

About the Met

Under the leadership of General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James
Levine, the Met has a series of bold initiatives underway that are designed to
broaden its audience and revitalize the company`s repertory. The Met has made a
commitment to presenting modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory,
with highly theatrical productions featuring the greatest opera stars in the
world.

The Met`s 2009-10 season features eight new productions, four of which are Met
premieres: Janáček`s From the House of the Dead, Verdi`s Attila, Shostakovich`s
The Nose, and Rossini`s Armida. The other new productions are Puccini`s Tosca,
Offenbach`s Les Contes d`Hoffmann, Bizet`s Carmen, and Thomas`s Hamlet.

Building on its 78-year-old international radio broadcast history - heard over
the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network - the Met uses
advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to reach
audiences around the world.

The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Met: Live in HD series returns for its
fourth season in 2009-10 with nine transmissions, beginning October 10 with
Tosca starring Karita Mattila and ending with Armida starring Renée Fleming on
May 1. The Met recently introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that
makes much of its extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances
available to the public for the first time online, and in exceptional,
state-of-the-art quality. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio broadcasts
both live and rare historical performances; the Met on Rhapsody on-demand
service offers audio recordings; and the Met presents free live audio streaming
of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with
support from RealNetworks.

The Met has launched several audience development initiatives, including Open
House dress rehearsals, a popular rush ticket program, reduced ticket prices,
Gallery Met, and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families. For more
information, please visit: www.metopera.org.

For WNET.ORG
Jitin Hingorani, 212-560-6609
hingoraniJ@wnet.org
or
For The Met
Charlie Siedenburg, 212-870-7457
csiedenburg@metopera.org

Copyright Business Wire 2009