The Love for Three Oranges

Philosophical tragedy! Heart-warming comedy! Lyrical drama! Ingenious tomfoolery! Such are the motley conceptions of what this opera should be, as expressed by the characters from the audience who invade the stage in the Prologue to Sergei Prokofiev's opera. And yet THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES, after a play by the Venetian Carlo Gozzi, not only incorporates aspects of all of these genres but also combines tragedy with comedy, poetry with the grotesque and fairytale with satire to produce a grandiose piece of theatre that has wowed audiences around the world since its premiere in 1921.

That this story of a lovelorn prince has become the most beloved of Prokofiev's operas is down not only to its quirky and spirited music, however, but also to the interpretive freedom provided by his rich, visual world with its cast of magicians, fairies and card-playing queens. With audiences free to read the work as fanciful fairytale, shrewd political satire or glamorous revue, it is small wonder that Robert Carsen loves this particular opera. The Canadian director will be familiar to Deutsche Oper Berlin audiences from his stagings of Strauss' ARIADNE ON NAXOS and Verdi's MACBETH. THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES, performed here unsurprisingly in the French original, is Carsen's first brand new production at a Berlin opera house.

Kindly supported by Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Presented by kulturradio vom rbb