Cendrillon (stage versions)

Overview

"Cendrillon" (Cinderella) is Charles Perrault's fairy tale, Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre (1697, Wikipedia, "Cendrillon"). Marie names it in three different stage productions that are not the same work. None has been identified with a printed title. They stay in one entry because each production has only one or two paragraphs in the diary.

The three productions

1. Nice, Théâtre-Français, 28 March 1873: an unidentified play. After Molière's Tartuffe ("beau, je ne dis pas; mais en même temps fatigant") she "se ranime à la deuxième pièce, 'Cendrillon' très bien jouée" (003.0122). The theatre was full of "monde élégant", the White sisters sat beside them (003.0123); she wore her blue silk dress. Probably a one-act comedy, vaudeville or féerie played by the local company; nothing further could be found. 2. Vienna, Renz's circus, 14 August 1873: a pantomime. "Il y avait une pantomime, Cendrillon": historical figures appear in a parade (Bismarck, Moltke, Napoléon Ier, Thiers, Mac-Mahon, the Shah, Tsar Alexander in a cart drawn by a "rosse"), all "représenté par des enfants", which angers Marie "pour la Russie" (008.0025). A circus pantomime with a political parade; plainly not the Nice piece. 3. Nice, the circus, February-March 1875: Cinderella played by small children. "De là au cirque, Cendrillon jouée par des bambins de deux à huit ans" (029.0320, 14 February 1875). On 11 March 1875 Marie jokes with Marie (Sapogenikoff) that her childlike engagement would be "le mariage Cendrillon (joué par des enfants, ici au cirque)" (030.0179). Two mentions, one production; again not identified, and not the Vienna pantomime.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Cendrillon".
• Searches of the BnF and Internet Archive catalogues found no one-act "Cendrillon" comedy of 1873 matching the Nice bill; the identification is open.