Ballet

Cinderella

3 upcoming performances in New York

Sergei Prokofiev’s *Cinderella* is a mid‑20th‑century ballet score that retells the familiar folktale through sharply etched dance rhythms and long-breathed lyric writing, composed across the war years and first staged in 1945 at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. Its theatrical engine is as much comedy as romance, with the stepfamily often drawn as absurd rather than cruel. In New York, the music has lived a second life in the concert hall, where suites and excerpts circulate as repertory. One can hear Prokofiev’s gift for character in how quickly the orchestra turns from glitter to bite.