The time the cops came for Rossini

Rossini’s La Cenerentola is an opera that might never have been written without the involvement of local police. 

The year 1816 saw Rossini juggling several assignments in a particularly hectic period of his burgeoning musical career. Projects included a revival of L’Italiana in Algeri in January; the premiere of Il barbieri di Siviglia in February; a new cantata in April; and two more new operas in September and December. It’s a shame railroads were not yet available, as Rossini was living the commuter life, making frequent jaunts from Naples (where he was Director of Royal Theaters) to Rome and back again.

A big opportunity brought the composer to Rome: the impresario Pietro Cartoni offered him a contract to create a new opera for the Teatro Valle on December 26 to open the Carnival season. The terms included the generous fee of 500 scudi, or about $30,000.

As time passed, however, things got complicated. Rossini was expected to report to Rome in October to meet with Cartoni and begin work in earnest. But delays resulting from his over-crowded schedule pushed the start-up date to December 3; this caused the new opera to be moved from the first production of the season to the second. Even December 3 proved impossible as it conflicted with the premiere of Rossini’s Otello on December 4.

A second snag involved a complete rejection of the original subject and librettist chosen. The new opera was originally to be called Laurina alla corte, with a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. At first, Rossini appeared pleased with the drafts he received from Rossi, expressing praise for its theatricality. But as October turned to November, Rossini seemed to lose interest in the whole project, ignoring Cartoni and going incommunicado.

That’s when the cops got involved.

Cartoni, after what must have been several sleepless nights, requested that the Chief of the Naples Police Force compel the wayward genius to comply with the contract he’d signed or face the consequences. Resigned to his legal obligations, Rossini finally showed up in Rome to begin work. But more problems were to come!

The draft of Laurina alla corte, the proposed libretto for Rome, ran afoul of the censors. After fruitless attempts to avoid censorship without drastically altering the story, the opera was abandoned. Another snag: Rossi was no longer available, committed to another project. Cartoni now had a composer, but no subject and no librettist, with the Carnival clock tick-tocking ominously.

This is when all parties agreed on the subject of the familiar fairy-tale Cinderella at literally the last possible moment. You may wonder how this opera was composed – and rehearsed! – in such a brief window of time.

The answer is: Rossini and his new librettist Jacopo Ferretti, um, “borrowed” the libretto of a recent Cinderella opera called Agatina, o La Virtù premiata by Stefano Pavesi, staged at La Scala only two years earlier! Fortunately for posterity, the concept of intellectual property was not yet in existence.

The downside of Rossini’s procrastination is described in Herbert Weinstock’s biography of the composer. With the music having been completed at such a late date, there was insufficient time for the artists – oh, pity the artists – to learn their roles. Ferretti wrote of the first performance that “all those taking part in the performance on that fatal first night had rapid pulses and the sweat of death dripping from their pallid foreheads.”

It must have been a horrendous performance; it was greeted with catcalls from the audience. Rossini predicted that once everyone learned their parts his Cinderella would be fought over by prima donnas and performed all over Europe.

He wasn’t wrong.