Alma Deutscher began playing piano when she was 2. By age 5, she composed songs from her imaginary country, “Transylvanian.” At 10, she wrote her first opera, “Cinderella,” her version of the fairy tale centers around music. A decade later, the British composer joins the Virginia Arts Festival to perform with other young talents from the Governor's School for the Arts this Saturday.
Deutscher never liked being called a child prodigy; she feels people will hesitate to take her work seriously. But the label has been difficult to escape as she’s risen to international prominence unprecedented for her age.
“When I was working with adults, they would often in the beginning think ‘who is this little child that we have to work with?’ ” Deutscher said during an interview while in Norfolk rehearsing for the show. After hearing her work, however, artists took her seriously.
Deutscher knew at age 3 that she wanted to compose an opera and reimagined her favorite tale. Looking back on it as an adult, Deutscher said she can see how it reflects her experience fighting to be taken seriously.
“What disturbed me a bit was that Cinderella was so passive, she didn't have a lot of character,” Deutscher said, “I didn’t like that Cinderella gets the prince in the end only because she has a small foot.”
In Deutscher’s opera, Cinderella is a copyist at her stepmother’s opera company. Her stepsisters think they’re prima donnas but are talentless divas. The prince is a poet longing to find his true love.
When Cinderella meets the prince at the ball, she sings a song so haunting and beautiful that the prince falls in love and searches the kingdom for the girl who can finish the second half of the melody.
As Deutscher has grown, so has “Cinderella.” She said today’s production is longer than the original, the music is more complex and refined, and the story further draws out elements of drama and humor.
“One changes as a composer all the time,” Deutscher said. “I was always so happy when there were lots of other people who also liked to listen to my music, but I think it was very important for me not to put any pressure on myself to write music that people told me to or that I didn't actually like myself.”
Deutscher has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, but this is her first time in Virginia and working with artists younger than she.
“It’s so wonderful to see how much they love the music and how well prepared they all are and how inspired they all are.”
“Cinderella,” 7 p.m., March 15 at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach. Visit vafest.org for tickets and information.
