A satirical, grotesque and fast-paced adventure about the search for laughter.
Opera in four acts (ten scenes) and a prelude
Libretto by the composer after Wsewolod Meyerhold's adaptation of the play of the same name by Carlo Gozzi in the translation by Werner Hintze
Performed in German with German and English supertitles
Premiere
7. December 2024
Dates & Cast
- Conductor Erik Nielsen
- Staging Evgeny Titov
- Choreography Pim Veulings
- Set Design Wolfgang Menardi
- Costume Design Emma Ryott
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Dramaturgy Benedikt Stampfli
- König Treff Georg Zeppenfeld (07., 11., 15., 18., 20. December 2024, 02. January 2025), Goran Jurić (03. January 2025)
- Prince Mauro Peter
- Prinzessin Clarissa Nadezhda Karyazina
- Leander Neven Crnić
- Truffaldino Aaron Pegram
- Pantalon Danylo Matviienko
- Zauberer Tschelio Alexandros Stavrakakis
- Fata Morgana Flurina Stucki
- Linetta Michal Doron
- Nicoletta Valerie Eickhoff
- Ninetta Jasmin Delfs
- Köchin Taras Shtonda
- Farfarello Tilmann Rönnebeck
- Smeraldina Georgina Fürstenberg
- master of ceremonies Gerald Hupach
- Herold Taras Shtonda
- Conductor Erik Nielsen
- Staging Evgeny Titov
- Choreography Pim Veulings
- Set Design Wolfgang Menardi
- Costume Design Emma Ryott
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Dramaturgy Benedikt Stampfli
- König Treff Georg Zeppenfeld
- Prince Mauro Peter
- Prinzessin Clarissa Nadezhda Karyazina
- Leander Neven Crnić
- Truffaldino Aaron Pegram
- Pantalon Danylo Matviienko
- Zauberer Tschelio Alexandros Stavrakakis
- Fata Morgana Flurina Stucki
- Linetta Michal Doron
- Nicoletta Valerie Eickhoff
- Ninetta Jasmin Delfs
- Köchin Taras Shtonda
- Farfarello Tilmann Rönnebeck
- Smeraldina Georgina Fürstenberg
- master of ceremonies Gerald Hupach
- Herold Taras Shtonda
- Conductor Erik Nielsen
- Staging Evgeny Titov
- Choreography Pim Veulings
- Set Design Wolfgang Menardi
- Costume Design Emma Ryott
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Dramaturgy Benedikt Stampfli
- König Treff Georg Zeppenfeld
- Prince Mauro Peter
- Prinzessin Clarissa Nadezhda Karyazina
- Leander Neven Crnić
- Truffaldino Aaron Pegram
- Pantalon Danylo Matviienko
- Zauberer Tschelio Alexandros Stavrakakis
- Fata Morgana Flurina Stucki
- Linetta Michal Doron
- Nicoletta Valerie Eickhoff
- Ninetta Jasmin Delfs
- Köchin Taras Shtonda
- Farfarello Tilmann Rönnebeck
- Smeraldina Georgina Fürstenberg
- master of ceremonies Gerald Hupach
- Herold Taras Shtonda
- Conductor Erik Nielsen
- Staging Evgeny Titov
- Choreography Pim Veulings
- Set Design Wolfgang Menardi
- Costume Design Emma Ryott
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Dramaturgy Benedikt Stampfli
- König Treff Georg Zeppenfeld
- Prince Mauro Peter
- Prinzessin Clarissa Nadezhda Karyazina
- Leander Neven Crnić
- Truffaldino Aaron Pegram
- Pantalon Danylo Matviienko
- Zauberer Tschelio Alexandros Stavrakakis
- Fata Morgana Flurina Stucki
- Linetta Michal Doron
- Nicoletta Valerie Eickhoff
- Ninetta Jasmin Delfs
- Köchin Taras Shtonda
- Farfarello Tilmann Rönnebeck
- Smeraldina Georgina Fürstenberg
- master of ceremonies Gerald Hupach
- Herold Taras Shtonda
- Conductor Erik Nielsen
- Staging Evgeny Titov
- Choreography Pim Veulings
- Set Design Wolfgang Menardi
- Costume Design Emma Ryott
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Dramaturgy Benedikt Stampfli
- König Treff Georg Zeppenfeld
- Prince Mauro Peter
- Prinzessin Clarissa Nadezhda Karyazina
- Leander Neven Crnić
- Truffaldino Aaron Pegram
- Pantalon Danylo Matviienko
- Zauberer Tschelio Alexandros Stavrakakis
- Fata Morgana Flurina Stucki
- Linetta Michal Doron
- Nicoletta Valerie Eickhoff
- Ninetta Jasmin Delfs
- Köchin Taras Shtonda
- Farfarello Tilmann Rönnebeck
- Smeraldina Georgina Fürstenberg
- master of ceremonies Gerald Hupach
- Herold Taras Shtonda
- Conductor Erik Nielsen
- Staging Evgeny Titov
- Choreography Pim Veulings
- Set Design Wolfgang Menardi
- Costume Design Emma Ryott
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Dramaturgy Benedikt Stampfli
- König Treff Georg Zeppenfeld
- Prince Mauro Peter
- Prinzessin Clarissa Nadezhda Karyazina
- Leander Neven Crnić
- Truffaldino Aaron Pegram
- Pantalon Danylo Matviienko
- Zauberer Tschelio Alexandros Stavrakakis
- Fata Morgana Flurina Stucki
- Linetta Michal Doron
- Nicoletta Valerie Eickhoff
- Ninetta Jasmin Delfs
- Köchin Taras Shtonda
- Farfarello Tilmann Rönnebeck
- Smeraldina Georgina Fürstenberg
- master of ceremonies Gerald Hupach
- Herold Taras Shtonda
- Conductor Erik Nielsen
- Staging Evgeny Titov
- Choreography Pim Veulings
- Set Design Wolfgang Menardi
- Costume Design Emma Ryott
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Dramaturgy Benedikt Stampfli
- König Treff Georg Zeppenfeld
- Prince Mauro Peter
- Prinzessin Clarissa Nadezhda Karyazina
- Leander Neven Crnić
- Truffaldino Aaron Pegram
- Pantalon Danylo Matviienko
- Zauberer Tschelio Alexandros Stavrakakis
- Fata Morgana Flurina Stucki
- Linetta Michal Doron
- Nicoletta Valerie Eickhoff
- Ninetta Jasmin Delfs
- Köchin Taras Shtonda
- Farfarello Tilmann Rönnebeck
- Smeraldina Georgina Fürstenberg
- master of ceremonies Gerald Hupach
- Herold Taras Shtonda
- Conductor Erik Nielsen
- Staging Evgeny Titov
- Choreography Pim Veulings
- Set Design Wolfgang Menardi
- Costume Design Emma Ryott
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Dramaturgy Benedikt Stampfli
- König Treff Goran Jurić
- Prince Mauro Peter
- Prinzessin Clarissa Nadezhda Karyazina
- Leander Neven Crnić
- Truffaldino Aaron Pegram
- Pantalon Danylo Matviienko
- Zauberer Tschelio Alexandros Stavrakakis
- Fata Morgana Flurina Stucki
- Linetta Michal Doron
- Nicoletta Valerie Eickhoff
- Ninetta Jasmin Delfs
- Köchin Taras Shtonda
- Farfarello Tilmann Rönnebeck
- Smeraldina Georgina Fürstenberg
- master of ceremonies Gerald Hupach
- Herold Taras Shtonda
In brief
How terrible must life be if you can’t laugh? Sergei Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges is about a king who wishes to help his sick son. But only one thing can cure the malady of the heir to the throne: laughter. While the doctors are trying their luck, Truffaldino and Fata Morgana get into a fight, during which the latter is knocked over.
When her mishap causes the Prince to laugh, she quickly places a curse on him: he is destined to fall in love with three oranges. The Prince and Truffaldino immediately set off on a hair-raising journey that finally takes them to a desert – a trip that can be seen as a balancing act between fantasy and reality. Here parody is tinged with tragedy and a touch of the grotesque.
Born at the end of the 19th century in the Donetsk Oblast, Sergei Prokofiev is famous as the composer of the ballet „Romeo and Juliet“ as well as for his many other works, such as the musical fairy tale for children „Peter and the Wolf“. The author of numerous operas, he enjoyed huge success with The Love for Three Oranges, based on the play of the same name by Carlo Gozzi. Prokofiev left Russia in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917 to settle in the USA. The world premiere of this opera – in French translation – took place in Chicago in 1921, with Prokofiev himself producing the libretto from the original play. Musically, the work is infused with a sense of wit, playfulness and humour. Fast rhythms, colourful instrumentation, ingenious fugal techniques and vibrant spontaneity set the tone for The Love for Three Oranges.
Storyline
Prologue
Different groups in the audience argue about which theater genre is the best, the tragic or the comic. The argument is ended when the Cranks announce that something unique, namely The Love for Three Oranges, will now be played.
Act I
The King solicits advice from his doctors on how to cure his son, who is pining away with melancholy. For the potential heir to the throne, only one remedy can help him regain his spirits: laughter. While the doctors are trying their luck, a dispute arises between the magician Tchelio and the witch Fata Morgana, and the latter wins in a card game. Meanwhile, minister Leandro hatches a plan with Clarice, the King’s niece, to prevent the Prince from being cured so that they will one day end up on the King’s throne. Smeraldina, a servant of Fata Morgana, assures the schemers that her mistress will support the plan.
Act II
The jester Truffaldino picks up the Prince in his room to take him to a party with the hope of making him laugh there. But jokes and amusements cannot elicit even a grin from the potential heir to the throne. Truffaldino gets into an argument with Fata Morgana, and the latter falls in an amusing way. The Prince is compelled to laugh at this sight, but then he is immediately struck by Fata Morgana’s curse: he will fall in love with three oranges.
Act III
Tchelio, the Prince’s ally, summons the wind demon Farfarello, but instead of helping, he blows her to Creonte’s palace. There, Truffaldino and the Prince meet the Cook, but the Prince succeeds in escaping from her, stealing three oranges along the way.
In order to return home, the two have to cross the desert. Exhausted, the Prince falls asleep while Truffaldino thirstily opens an orange. Instead of a juicy fruit, a princess springs from the orange demanding water. There is a girl in the second orange as well, and both are dying of thirst. Thereupon Truffaldino flees and, waking up, the Prince opens the third orange: Princess Ninetta sinks into his arms. Before she and the Prince succumb to their thirst, the Cranks offer their help and give the young lovers water. The Prince hurries to the King while Ninetta, awaiting his return, is transformed by Smeraldina and her magic needle into a rat. Smeraldina takes Ninetta’s place and the Prince is forced by his father to bring back the wrong bride.
Act IV
Tchelio and Fata Morgana clash again, and in order to ensure a happy ending to the comedy, the Cranks intervene once more and put Fata Morgana out of action.
The sham wedding is underway, but Ninetta, transformed into a rat, is also present. Now Tchelio’s moment arrives: he uncovers the deception, the rat turns back into Ninetta, and all the villains are exposed. Though the King would like to see them all hanged, Clarice, Leandro, and Smeraldina manage to escape thanks to Fata Morgana. The future royal couple is pompously celebrated.
