The fairy tale of Cinderella is well known. Less well known, however, is that Johann Strauss worked on a ballet based on this fairy tale at the end of his life. Only a fragment of it has survived. The mysteries surrounding this fragment inspired Axel Ranisch and Martina Eisenreich to create their own piece about the creation of the ballet, its storyline, as well as an unusual Cinderella story set in our present day. This fairy-tale operetta presents a Cinderella unlike any other Cinderella in the world!

Vienna, 2025: The young Cinderella moves into a house at Glasergasse 7 in Vienna with her stepmother Alice and stepsisters Dorothee and BirdyLove. Alice wants to recruit the talented young footballer Danny for her football club, FC Wien, and in doing so, she disrupts not only Cinderella’s emotional world. While exploring the house, Cinderella discovers in the attic the libretto for a ballet by Johann Strauss, written by a certain Ida Grünwald. This sets off a chain reaction that twists time itself…

Vienna, 1899: Johann Strauss wishes to compose a ballet. A competition is held to find a suitable libretto, and indeed, one of them manages to inspire the composer’s imagination. But it does not come from the official submissions—it comes from the copyist Ida Grünwald. She was supposed to merely type out the competition entries but secretly smuggled in her own Cinderella.

The Cinderella Ballet: The talented seamstress Grete works in her stepmother’s fashion salon. Grete dreams of designing her own fashions, but her stepsisters Yvette and Fanchon make fun of her. When the painter Leon enters the salon, everything changes.

Aschenbrödels Traum (Cinderella’s Dream) takes the audience on a fantastic journey, telling a story of self-discovery and emancipation as much as of creativity and the power of imagination. Martina Eisenreich’s music traces the artistic spirit of Johann Strauss, plays with quotations, and yet creates an entirely new musical world.

With the kind support of Johann Strauss 2025 Wien