Comedy falls flat in ENO's season opening Cinderella

Deepa Johnny (Cinderella) and Charles Rice (Dandini)

Cinderella

Simon Bailey (Don Magnifico) and the ENO Chorus

Deepa Johnny (Cinderella) and Aaron Godfrey Mayes (Don Ramiro)

Deepa Johnny (Cinderella)

By Mark Valencia, 29 September 2025

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“Deepa Johnny... is blessed with the kind of honeyed timbre you could melt inside”

Reviewed at The London Coliseum, London on 27 September 2025

Rossini, La Cenerentola (Cinderella)

English National Opera

Yi-Chen Lin, Conductor

Julia Burbach, Director

Herbert Murauer, Set Designer

Sussie Juhlin-Wallén, Costume Designer

Malcolm Rippeth, Lighting Designer

English National Opera Orchestra

English National Opera Chorus

Deepa Johnny, Angelina (Cinderella)

Aaron Godfrey-Mayes, Don Ramiro

Charles Rice, Dandini, valet to Ramiro

Simon Bailey, Don Magnifico

David Ireland, Alidoro

Isabelle Peters, Clorinda

Grace Durham, Tisbe

Cameron McMillan, Choreography

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

The comedy falls flat in English National Opera's season opening Cinderella