From around the world: Paris. (International).(Opera Review)

The Theatre des Champs-Elysees's new production of Rossini's La Cenerentola was directed by Irina Brook, daughter of the celebrated Peter Brook (seen May 16). Rossini's comic operas should always be fun, and Brook's production was full of witty gags and just avoided the temptations of gratuitous and too-broad humor. Brook updated the story to present times, a concept that afforded such felicitous touches as ugly sisters (Carla Di Senso and Nidia Palacios) who weren't grotesques but credible club-hopping vamps, constantly grooming themselves.

Act I opened in the "Bar Magnifico," complete with black-and-white TV and soccer posters, a fine example of No,lie Ginefri's imaginative set designs. However, by making Magnifico a dowdy cafe owner, Brook undermined the humanity of the libretto's impoverished aristocrat, desperate to make a financially sound marriage for his daughters. In Act II, Ginefri's gigantic replicas of Cinderella's party shoes corresponded with the traditional French version of the story, but they downplayed the importance of the bracelet, the crucial evidence in this telling. Other minor irritations included video gags and the way the small chorus jived to Rossini's rhythmic figures. However, the fine performances Brook drew from the excellent cast largely justified her sometimes wayward concepts.

As Don Magnifico, Alessandro Corbelli bubbled with classic Italian vocal panache. The other buffo characters were equally adroit. Pietro Spagnoli (Dandini) offered singing of impeccable finesse and just the right amount of macho roughness to contrast nicely with the cool, laid-back prince of Paul Austin Kelly, whose palace was a stylish, candy-colored penthouse. Kelly was announced as indisposed; though he sang with seeming ease and finely turned phrasing, he did suffer sometimes from a lack of power. Ildebrando d'Arcangelo's comic magician Alidoro dominated the evening, with a powerful, burnished-brass voice and a wide range of comic facial expressions and double takes (which only occasionally threatened to get out of hand).

Vivica Genaux's petite Angelina was initially seen, bespectacled and frumpy, serving espressos in the cafe while dreamily reading glossy magazines. (In true Hollywood style, both she and the disguised prince later whipped off their glasses to reveal their true radiance.) Genaux used her light-hued voice with showstopping virtuosity in the final rondo, which energetic conductor Evelino Pido took at a crackling pace, hardly allowing the singer sufficient time to expand her tone. Elsewhere, Pido presided over the Concerto Koln, a Baroque ensemble, with precision and infectious vivacity.

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