DIE LIEBE ZU DEN DREI ORANGEN

"Some critics at least seem to be trying to understand who I'm pulling the leg of: the audience, Gozzi, the conventional form of opera or simply everyone who can't laugh!" (Prokofieff)

An oscillating, vital play about fairy tales and masks, with magicians and monarchs, princesses and princes and many other characters from the realm of fantasy - all this is THE LOVE OF THE THREE ORANGES. Composed just over 100 years ago, the opera is now being revisited at the Bonn Opera House and staged by comedy specialist Leo Muscato.

The opera transcends the dimensions of a naïve fairy tale as well as those of an impromptu comedy in the tradition of the Commedia dell'Arte. It seems like a model for the experimental avant-garde theater of the 1920s.

It was only after some difficulties, caused by the sudden death of the artistic director Campanini and a hesitant interim management of the opera in Chicago, that THE THREE ORANGES was premiered on December 30, 1921. Despite initial irritation, the work quickly began its triumphal march around the world. It is Prokofieff's best-known opera, and its famous march becomes the composer's musical trademark.