Cinderella may have been down on her luck, but no one expected her to show up in the red light district. Least of all the descendants of Sergei Prokofiev.
They are so incensed at a Latvian production of the Russian composer’s ballet that they have forced the show to close by refusing rights to use the music.
In the production the heroine is a cleaner in a bordello where the ugly sisters work as prostitutes and the evil step mother is the madam.
Prince Charming’s tutor invites Cinderella to the ball and dresses her in a revealing pink dress that seduces his master. But the tutor destroys their burgeoning love affair by trying to pay Cinderella for her services.
The prince later visits the brothel to claim his love.
Noëlle Mann, secretary of the London-based Sergei Prokofiev Foundation, said Prokofiev’s son and grandson, who live in France, had learned of the adaptation by the Latvian National Opera (LNO) in Riga via the internet.
They were ”seriously annoyed” by the production and had acted via their lawyers to stop it.
”It was about the treatment of the ballet,” she said. ”The family objected because the music should go with the original story: the way it has been done here, the two are completely divorced.”
Mairita Britse, a spokesperson for LNO said: ”The music has not been altered and we see no reason to prohibit the ballet. Every artist has their own vision.”
But Mann said that Prokofiev’s relatives were not against modern adaptations per se.
”Some of them are absolutely brilliant,” she said. – Guardian Unlimited Â