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Concept
The Love for Three Oranges
Summary
L'amour des trois oranges, Op. 33, is a satirical French-language opera by Sergei Prokofiev. He wrote his own libretto, basing it on the Italian play L'amore delle tre melarance, or The Love for Three Oranges (Любовь к трём апельсинам), by Carlo Gozzi, and conducted the premiere, which took place at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on 30 December 1921.
The opera resulted from a commission during Prokofiev's first visit to the United States in 1918. After well-received concerts of his works in Chicago, including his First Symphony, Prokofiev was approached by the director of the Chicago Opera Association, Cleofonte Campanini, to write an opera.
Conveniently the composer had already drafted a libretto during his voyage to America, one based on Gozzi's Italian play in mock commedia dell'arte style (itself an adaptation of Giambattista Basile's fairy tale). He had done so using Vsevolod Meyerhold's Russian translation of the Gozzi and had injected a dose of Surrealism into the commedia dell'arte mix. But Russian would have been unacceptable to an American audience, and Prokofiev's English was scanty, so, with possible help from soprano Vera Janacopoulos, he settled on French.
Prokofiev conducted the premiere, which took place at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on 30 December 1921. Initial criticism was harsh. "It left many of our best people dazed and wondering"; "Russian jazz with Bolshevik trimmings"; and "The work is intended, one learns, to poke fun. As far as I am able to discern, it pokes fun chiefly at those who paid money for it". However, one newspaperman and author gave it an enthusiastic review. Ben Hecht wrote: "There is nothing difficult about this music, unless you are unfortunate enough to be a music critic. But to the untutored ear there is a charming capriciousness about the sounds from the orchestra".
Five years after the premiere, in 1926, the French opera received its first production in Russian, in Petrograd.
L'amour des trois oranges was not performed again in the United States until 1949 when the New York City Opera resurrected it.
Official source
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