Susannah Waters - Rossini: LA CENERENTOLA, Sventurata mi creda (Clorinda's aria)

THE SONGBIRD: Susannah Waters was born in Kent and graduated from London's Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She made her professional stage debut as Belinda in "Dido and Aeneas" in 1986 in New York. Roles included Despina, Zerlina, Papagena, Cherubino, Konstanze, Atalanta, Sophie, Yum-Yum, Philine, and Nanetta in productions in Glasgow, Glyndebourne, Vienna, Stockholm, Paris, Santa Fe, Seattle, and at the New York City Opera. Waters left singing as a career in 2002 and has become a successful writer and stage director. The much-honored film and stage actor Mark Rylance is her brother.

THE MUSIC: "La cenerentola," Rossini's version of the Cinderella story, is one of the most popular operas in the world, ranking 21st over the past decade with 1766 performances, according to Operabase.com. But many of those performances likely did not include this aria for Clorinda as it is often cut. According to Wikipedia, this aria was one of a few pieces of music in the opera that was actually written for the 1817 premiere in Rome by Luca Agolini, who Rossini hired to help him out as the opera had to be composed in only three weeks. Here is it sung in English. I don't know the source. I thought it might be from the New York City Opera in the late 1980s or early 1990s as their production included the aria, and Waters was on the NYCO roster during this period -- however, the English translations she sings here is different from the one used by (the incomparably funny) Gianna Rolandi from that NYCO production. If you have not seen that yet, go find that YouTube immediately!