Performance History
At the first performance, the opera was received with some hostility, but it soon became popular throughout Italy and beyond; it reached Lisbon in 1819, London in 1820 and New York in 1826. Throughout most of the 19th century, its popularity rivalled that of Barber, but as the coloratura contralto, for which the role was originally written, became rare it fell slowly out of the repertoire. However, from the 1960s onward, as Rossini enjoyed a renaissance, a new generation of Rossini mezzo-sopranos and contraltos ensured the renewed popularity of the work.
There are changes from the traditional fairy tale in La Cenerentola because Rossini opted for having a non-magical resolution to the story (unlike the original source), due to obvious limitations in the "special effects" available.
There are a number of recordings of the opera, and, as a staple of the standard operatic repertoire, it appears as number 29 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.
Read more about this topic: La Cenerentola
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