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Review: Northern Opera Group’s Cinderella, filmed in Leeds THE rags to riches tale of Cinderella has inspired famous composers to create operas based on Cendrillon, an 18th century fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Massenet’s Cendrillon and Rossini’s La Cenerentola continue to be staged by leading opera companies. A smaller scale operatic version by Pauline Viardot is much less well known and has now been rediscovered by Northern Opera Group. Viardot was a leading French mezzo soprano who, after her retirement from the stage, composed choral works, songs, and five chamber or ‘salon’ operas. Cendrillon was premiered at Viardot’s Paris salon in April 1904, by which time the composer had reached her early eighties. The work is written for seven main characters and chorus with piano accompaniment.