Cinderella (ballet)

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Cinderella is a fragmentary ballet (1899) by Johann Strauss (Sohn) , which was supplemented, orchestrated and made suitable for the stage by Josef Bayer on the basis of the fragments left by Strauss.

Josef Bayer, author of the first stage adaptation.

Work history

On March 5, 1898, the journalist and librettist Rudolf Lothar suggested in his magazine Die Waage that awards be given to proposals for the subject and libretto of a ballet by Johann Strauss. The jury consisted of Lothar and Eduard Hanslick , Nikolaus Dumba and Gustav Mahler . The draft of the libretto by Albert Kollmann (i.e. Karl Colbert) was carried out by Hermann Heinrich Regel. Until his death, Johann Strauss had orchestrated the first act and half of the third act. Completion of the work fell to Josef Bayer under the contractual provision to use only the music by Johann Strauss (“with the exception of the technically necessary transitions”). Bayer completed the piano reduction of the ballet, but Gustav Mahler was of the opinion that the work had nothing to do with Johann Strauss and refused to perform it. On February 11, 1901, at the Concordia Ball in Vienna's Sophien-Saal, Bayer's arrangement of waltzes came out of the Cinderella with great success .

With the contract between Adele Strauss in 1901, the ballet was revised by librettist Heinrich Regel and the music was rearranged by Josef Bayer. On May 2, 1901, the world premiere of Cinderella in this version did not take place in Vienna, but in the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the Royal Opera House in Berlin, Emil Graeb took over the choreography.

It was not until seven years later, on October 4th, 1908, that the work was performed for the first time at the Vienna Court Opera under Felix von Weingartner .

Renato Zanella's version of Cinderella was released in December 1999 at the Vienna State Opera. In 2010 Cinderella appeared with the ballet music by Strauss (son) and interludes by Gioacchino Rossini at the Musical Comedy in Leipzig. Another version by Mark McClain was premiered in 2016 at the Landestheater Coburg , the equipment for this was provided by Andreas Becker .

The Polkas Probirmamsell and Promenade Adventure were put together based on the motifs of the ballet.

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