The Love for three Oranges (L'amour des Trois Oranges)

Serge Prokofieff (1891 – 1953)

Opera in a prologue and four acts
French libretto by the composer & Véra Janacopoulos
after Carlo Gozzi's comedy L'AMORE DELLE TRE MELARANCE

–In French with surtites in German and English–

Conductor: Dirk Kaftan | Director: Leo Muscato

approx. 2 hours 30 minutes one intermission after the 2nd act

»Some critics appear at least to try to understand who’s leg I am pulling: the audience, Gozzi, the conventional form of opera or simply all who don’t know how to laugh!« (Prokofiev)

An oscillating, lively play encompassing fairy tales and masquerades, magicians and monarchs, princesses and princes and many other characters from the realm of fantasy – all that is THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES. Composed over a hundred years ago, the opera will be seen again at the Bonn Opera House in a staging by comedy expert Leo Muscato.

The opera exceeds the bounds of naïve fairy tales as well as those of impromptu comedy in the tradition of the commedia dell’arte. It works like a model for the experimental avant-garde theater of the 1920s.

After some difficulty owing to the unexpected death of the Chicago Opera Association’s Director Companini and his hesitant interim successor, the opera first had its premiere in Chicago on December 30, 1921. Despite some irritation at the start, the work quickly met with success all over the world. It is Prokofiev’s best-known opera, and its famous march has become perhaps the composer’s most identifiable piece of music.

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