IT'S 200 years since Rossini's excellent opera was first heard and any notions of fairies, fairy godmothers, glass slippers or pumpkins turning unto a carriage were not to be seen here.

Indeed, the wonderful versions we have been brought up on via Disney and pantomime bore little resemblance to director and choreographer Aletta Collins' vision, whichs set this pretty gritty fairytale in a dance school of over-powering Don Magnifico (Henry Waddington), the father of two vane, arrogant and bullying wannabe sisters (Sky Ingram and Amy J Payne)

Magnifico's put-upon step daughter Cinderella (mezzo-soprano, Wallis Giunta) sweeps the floor, huddles around a small fire for comfort and is picked on by her two step sisters.

Coming in at nearly three hours there's a lot happening, especially as Dandini (Quirijn de Lang) disguises himself as the prince (Sunnyboy Dladla) and the prince as the servant in his quest to find a wife to rule the land with.

Of course, the vane sisters pooh-pooh the lowly prince while Cinderella falls for him.

Gate-crashing the royal ball, helped by the prince's fixer Alidoro, Cinderella discovers the servant is the real prince and their worlds collide; he's besotted.

It's not magic that brings these two lovers together but Rossini's tremendous music, faultlessly sung and orchestrated.

Instead of running off at midnight, Cinderella flees the mass intrusion caused by the prince's attention but beforehand gives him one of her two matching bracelets and tells him if he finds her and still wants to, he can marry her.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Sung in Italian with English titles, the Operas North Chorus completed a joyous and enchanting evening.

Ed Waugh