Cinderella The Ballet at Joburg Theatre

South African Mzansi Ballet is proud to present a new version of the ultimate rags to riches fairy tale, Cinderella. Set to the score by Johann Strauss II, the ballet captures all the magic of this immortal fairy-tale with pumpkins turning into carriages, mice into white horses and Cinderella from an unloved step daughter to the princess of the realm.

Aschenbrödel (Cinderella) is a ballet by Johann Strauss II. The idea for Strauss to write a ballet came from editor Rudolf Lothar and critic Eduard Hanslick. A contest was held to decide a scenario and the winner, from 700 entries, was A. Kollmann from Salzburg (although there were rumors that Kollmann was a pseudonym and may have been a member of the Royal Family). Strauss was not impressed with the scenario which was set in a department store but started work immediately, at his own pace and refusing to be rushed. By the winter of 1898 he had completed Act 1 and was able to perform parts of the orchestral version on the piano.