Renée Lenore Tatum & Yoosun Park (front), Jessica Norris (rear). Photo by Carol Rosegg.

For its spring production, the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater presented a properly enchanting account of Cendrillon (Cinderella)—along with Manon, one of Jules Massenet’s more satisfying operas—its score of crystalline elegance led with a suitably light touch by Laurent Pillot, its action imaginatively guided by Chuck Hudson. The third and final performance, given on April 30, is considered here.

Soprano Yoosun Park, a wistful, modest Lucette, known as Cendrillon, lent a lustrous lyric soprano to her lament by the fireplace; breathless narrative of racing to be home close to midnight curfew, with its bell-like coloratura coda; and furious resolution to flee her oppressive stepfamily. Bright-voiced mezzo-soprano Renée Lenore Tatum, spirited as Frederica von Stade or the late Tatiana Troyanos was in a trouser role, was her quietly dashing Prince Charming, who would rather read than dance at the ball. Park and Tatum made the most of their tenderly romantic courting duet, with its recurrent refrain of “Vous êtes mon Prince Charmant.” Fearless as La Bonne Fée (the Fairy Godmother), demanding high coloratura vocal cousin to the Queen of Night and Zerbinetta, Jessica Norris cut a fittingly magical figure, as costumed by Daniel James Cole, as she shepherded her fairy band and her amorous charges. One notable musical moment at the end of the first act, where La Fée starts an ornate florid run and Cendrillon “catches” and continues it, worked exceptionally well, and the lovers’ scene in the woods, with their protector watching over them, which concludes Act Three, was as transcendent as it should be.

An effective Madame de la Haltière, the opera’s comic “ villain,” Cendrillon’s pompous stepmother, can walk away with the performance, despite the noblest efforts of the “good guys,” as contralto Maureen Forrester proved in performances in the 1980s. High honors here were taken by Kristy Swann, who had impressed as Maurya in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea last December, and did so again, flouncing as she prepared her foolish daughters (soprano Emily Albrink and mezzo-soprano Rebecca Jo Loeb) to meet the prince; incensed as she remembered the “hussy” who had distracted his attention from them; haughty as she unrolled a lengthy scroll attesting to her illustrious family tree; and skillfully negotiating her music in a mezzo of richness and flexibility throughout a wide range. Albrink and Loeb were a sight in their ridiculous party finery, the latter chicly sporting what looked like an arrow stuck through her head. Bass-baritone Robert Stafford made a sympathetic Pandolfe, Madame’s put upon spouse and Cendrillon’s father. Michael Certo, Gabriel Nochlin and Craig Price completed the cast. Sets were designed by Harry Feiner and lighting by John Demous.

One false note in Hudson’s otherwise apt staging: in the second act, when the guests, all facing the audience, proclaimed Lucette the belle of the ball, she was above and behind them on a balcony and not yet in their view. How could they already know?

Emily Albrink, Kristy Swann & Rebecca Jo Loeb. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Manhattan School of Music, 120 Claremont Avenue

April 26 & 28 at 8 pm, 30 at 2:30 pm