Teen Musical Prodigy Returns to San Jose to Conduct Cinderella

The 2017 American premiere of 17-year old musical prodigy Alma’s Deutscher’s Cinderella sold out immediately. The instant classic got remounted with a new twist: Alma returns to the Opera San José to make her American operatic conducting debut of a new version of the opera she began writing at the age of eight. “Finally coming here and conducting it myself,” Deutscher said between rehearsals in San Jose, “so I’m in charge, I’m the boss of what’s going on, and I work with the musicians myself and try to make the get the effects I want.”

It is a story of love and patience, handsome princes and evil step mothers but also about staying true to yourself and standing your ground. With children‘s choruses, instrumental solos and comic verve, this sparkling English language work is a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. Alma Deutscher’s Cinderella is based on the fairy tale, but music itself has become the central theme of the story.

The setting is an opera company run by the stepmother, who inherited it from Cinderella’s father when he died. Cinderella herself is a composer with beautiful melodies springing into her head, but she is not accepted by her new family — especially the stepsisters, who are vain, would-be divas. The prince is a poet, and the story is about the Prince searching for the lost melody for his poem (rather than a lost slipper).

Natalia Santaliz, Cinderella
Joey Hammond-Leppek, Prince
Rena Harms , Stepmother
Julia Dawson, Zibaldona
Stacey Tappan, Griselda
Megan Esther Grey, Fairy
Ben Brady, King
Brian James Myer, Minister

Opera San José Orchestra
Opera San José Chorus
Opera San José Dancers and Supers
Andrew Whitfield, assistant conductor
Alma Deutscher, conductor

Brad Dalton, stage director
Steven Kemp, scenic designer
Johann Stegmeier, costume designer
Alyssa Oania, costume director
Y. Sharon Peng & Sophia Smith, wig & makeup designers
Lori Scheper-Kesel, properties designer
David Lee Cutbert, lighting designer
Richard Powers, choreographer
Andrew Whitfield, chorus master