La Cenerentola’s Subtitle — some thoughts

La Cenerentola has an alternative name, La bontà in trionfo, or Goodness Triumphant.

I was reflecting on this name and the fact that Rossini didn’t want Alidoro, the character who plays roughly the same role as the fairy godmother, to have any magical powers at all.  He is portrayed as a wise man, who serves as an adviser to the prince and is tasked with helping the prince find the perfect bride.

Instead of a glass slipper, Angelina (La Cenerentola) gives the prince a bracelet and says that she has an identical one so that he can be sure he’s found the right person if he comes looking for her.  She is taking an active role in determining her future.

If we think about these differences, it seems to me that there is a very different message from what we see in the Disney Cinderella movie.  In an American context, a good story often has the message that social mobility really exists, and that a pauper stands a chance of joining the ruling class even if a little magic has to happen along the way.  (This helped Americans to be far more fascinated than the English by the story of Diana.  People liked to conveniently forget her aristocratic background and think about her marriage to the Prince Charles as an exciting rags to riches story!)

When I first arrived in the United States, I remember an American earnestly telling me about the difference between America and England.  “In England,” he told me, “when an ordinary person sees someone in a Rolls Royce, he thinks that one day (come the revolution) that person will be on a bus.  But, in the States, when the ordinary man sees someone in a Cadillac, he thinks to himself that one day he might own a car like that.”  That, of course, is the stuff the American dream is made of and exactly the sentiment that is intended to appeal to watchers of Disney’s Cinderella.

La Cenerentola is not really about promoting a dream of social mobility.  It is about the fact that people can get ahead by being good.  To me, that is a lot more truthful and more inspirational.