Editor’s choice

CINDERELLA STORY Starting with the bracelet that replaces the glass slipper, composer Gioacchino Rossini and librettist Jacopo Ferretti’s La Cenerentola whimsically upends the Cinderella tale that you know. Among the other surprises you’ll see in UBC Opera’s production of this comic gem, the wicked stepmother becomes an evil stepfather, the prince disguises himself as a valet, and the fairy godmother is a tutor-philosopher. And forget any Disney-esque preconceptions you have of pumpkin carriages or magical mice. But it’s Rossini’s beautiful music that’s the real draw here: the vocal virtuosity, the speeding patter, and the showcase for the title character’s mezzo voice. Gordon Gerrard conducts members of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra for this rendition, with Nancy Hermiston in the director’s chair.

La Cenerentola is at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts from Thursday to Sunday (February 1 to 4).