Cendrillon at Barcelona Opera House Gran Teatre Del Liceu

Jules Massenet's score makes it perfectly clear: Cendrillon is a fairy tale. Laurent Pelly takes the line of least resistance and creates a show that sweeps us away on a wave of fantasy, an elegant fin-de-siècle pastiche that blends melancholy and humour, naïve and poetic elements, 18th-century galant style and the lightness of Rossini. This evocative haven of sound accompanies a mise en scène reminiscent of the sumptuousness of French operetta and the sense of magic and surprise of a Disney classic. Touches of irony avert the danger of sugariness and there are well-aimed nods to comics. The production – Pelly's tribute to Perrault and his immortal tale – is a book of fairy tales come to life, in which literature, music and drama combine to conjure up an entrancing and delectable world.