Aschenbrödel

The story of Cinderella, who despite all the malice and wickedness of her stepmother and the bullying of her stepsisters, becomes the coveted prince’s bride, is one of the world’s most famous and most optimistic fairy-tales. At a magnificent ball, to which absolutely nobody wanted to take her, Cinderella outshines all others with some helpful magic, and the actually marriage-sceptical prince falls in love with the unknown beauty. Utterly smitten, he finally recognises her again with her lost slipper, and we have a happy end.

What other music could better suit Cinderella’s story and her dance into happiness and love than that of the waltz king – Johann Strauss? On his death in 1899, his »Aschenbrödel« ballet was still only a fragment of a final piece, which inexplicably still awaits a lasting rediscovery. Ballet master and choreographer Karl Alfred Schreiner has created his version of the ballet fairy-tale for the entire family, set to Straussʼs enchanting music as a dreamlike performance with fairies, magical animals and a couple in love, whose imagination is stronger than social conventions and jealousy.

ASCHENBRÖDEL programme reading sample