Every fairy tale has a hero who braves sorcerers, monsters, spells and other calamities all for the love of a beautiful princess.
Such is the case here in Gioacchino Rossini's operatic version of Cinderella, "La Cenerentola."
The opera premiered one year after Rossini's most popular work, The Barber of Seville, and features some of his best writing for the solo voice and vocal ensembles.
The composer fell into a pickle, however, when he had to compose an original overture for Cinderella.
In order to save time and energy, Rossini decided to borrow the overture from one of his earlier pieces, La gazzetta, and made a few alterations in order to create the overture for Cinderella.