Cendrillon
Jules Massenet
2026
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Creative Team:
Conductor: Ari Pelto
Choreographer: Kevin Williamson
Set Design: Donald Eastman
Lighting Design: Cassie Barnes
Projection and Media Design: Adam Larsen
Costume Design: Molly Irelan
Hair and Makeup Design: Heather Sterling
Cast:
Cendrillon: Elizabeth Gaitan / Phoebe Chee
Prince Charmant: Carmen Voskuhl / Natalie Sweene
La Fée: Carly Passer / Syona Ayyankeril
Pandolfe: Marcus Schaller / B Schaubhut
Madame de la Haltière: Lanie Anthan / Kyra Leetz
Noémie: Akshaya Lakshmi / Angelina Yi
Dorothée: Jordan Riek / Lily Bogas
Le Roi: William O’Neill / Jacob Soulliere
Peter returned to Massenet’s Cendrillon in 2026 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, revisiting a work central to his earlier directing career. Building on his acclaimed 2014 production at Juilliard, this staging continued his exploration of the opera’s balance of fantasy and emotional truth, shaped within the context of a conservatory environment that emphasizes both artistic development and theatrical refinement.
Photo Credit: Junhao Ma
2014
The Juilliard School
Creative Team:
Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
Choreographer: Kevin Williamson
Set Designer: Donald Eastman
Costume Designer: Gabriel Berry
Lighting Designer: James F. Ingalls
Cast:
Cendrillon: Julia Bullock
Le Prince Charmant: Lacey Jo Benter
Madame de la Haltière: Avery Amereau
La Fée: Hera Hyesang Park
Noémie: Elizabeth Sutphen
Dorothée: Marguerite Jones
Pandolfe: Szymon Komasa
Le Roi: Onay Köse
Le Doyen de la Faculté: James Edgar Knight
Le Surintendant des plaisirs: Joseph Eletto
“…an imaginative and affecting production…
To lend the tale immediacy, Kazaras sets the story in 1947 Paris…The countess becomes the owner of a Paris café; the henpecked Pandolfe is the establishment’s bartender; Cinderella, naturally, buses tables, cleans the place and tends to her patronizing stepmother and mean stepsisters…the updated production concept is both playful and poignant.
Cinderella falls asleep and dreams that her fairy godmother has come. This production suggests that Cinderella has wandered into the realm of the movie house next door…Films, after all, are the world of dreams and fantasies, and the metaphor works beautifully…In an inspired touch, this production places the confused lovers inside the movie house, where they wonder whether their meeting was a fantasy, after all…Juilliard could probably have run this show for two weeks.”
“Peter Kazaras, a fine tenor turned director, made much of the sad undertones of Perrault’s fairytale, refocusing character relationships and avoiding narrative clichés. He did take certain liberties, cutting ornamental dances and moving the action to modern times. He turned the fairy godmother into a whimsical society matron, the prince into a charming, bookish dreamer and the mischievous elves into coy usherettes. Somehow, it worked.”
Photo Credit: Junhao Ma
