Prokofiev: The Love for Three Oranges

I'm not sure how comic Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges actually is--you need a strong stage produciton to make sense of its assorted high jinks--but there's good reason to hear it in English. The original was in French, later adapted to Russian. I don't think I'v e ever laughed during a Russian opera, and although Gergiev's set on Philips with Kirov forces is excellent, non-Russian speakers won't catch a word. Here, under Richard Hickox, an English translation by Tom Stoppard, no less, can be mostly understood without a libretto.

What I hear still isn't very funny in this live staged performance; it's mostly a Dada burlesque. But everyone sings well, and the conductor's approach is less biting and angular than Gergiev's. There's a good French version under Kent Nagano to round out the lot. Not that Love for Three Oranges is a musical masterpiece. Leaving aside the famous march, Prokofiev threw in many modernist jokes without a great deal of melodic inspiration. In all, this set is worth hearing, but in the end you might be best off with a DVD so that the visuals can help the music along.

The plot, if we can call that a plot, is very simple. A hypochondriac prince is going to die deprived of love because his cousin wants to get the throne of his father. Then this cousin and the Prime Minister use black magic and witches to get to their ends. The comedians and other entertainers try to make the Prince laugh. They will use courage and daring to bring him to the oranges that contain white princesses. The good side will take over and complete its mission. The Prince will be saved. But there are elements that are outdated and irretrievable. One particularly. The bad witch uses a woman to lure and trap the Prince. She is a slave, black and herself some kind of voodoo witch. You read my lips. This is not the only case of racism against black people at the beginning of the twentieth century since Strauss's Rosenkavalier also has a black Moslem servant, but only a servant who does not say a word. Here the case is a lot more severe. Yet the opera that is more an operatic and ballet piece is trying to get to a higher level opposing representatives of various genres, particularly the Highbrows, the Lowbrows, the Romantics, the Empty Heads and the Eccentrics. This is a meta-approach that tries to mix various genres in the same work, tragedy and comedy, romance and entertainment. This is also typical of its age and the composer who try to look for and find new architectures in the wake of the tragic first world war and the bolshevik revolution. But what is left that can still talk to us in the plot? Not much except maybe the obvious and easy absolute power of the King corrected by fate, fortune, destiny and the architecture of the tale that turns the usurpers into escapees that will escape but to be trapped in hell. This is a metaphor of all political processes divided between power and counter-power, white magic and black magic, entertainment end seriousness, etc. The music can be considered as very good. It is also typical of Prokofiev's style. No over-skilled climbing up and down scales spread over-generously on vowels that never end being uttered and articulated. Hence a simple singing of clear words and syllables. The innovation comes from the use of one important trait. Prokofiev wants to wake up his audience, or at least to keep them awake and keep their attention on full alert for what is happening and what is being said. He uses then some very surprising intervals from one note to another, either very small, one or half a tone, if possible minor, or very big without reaching a full scale, working again on minor intervals of five notes, ending like in the previous case on a note that is not part of a chord and hence sounds awkward and attracts attention. This is very modern indeed. But is used for dramatic purposes by Prokofiev, and that is very important. It is in no way an embellishment like all the vocalizing of the old days. It is an emphasizer, a plot-thickener. Stravinsky seems to have used the same means but more for aesthetic reasons. Thus Prokofiev would not use a tritone for the only pleasure of using a discordant tritone, but to put some salt in the score, some taste in the opera. That too is the result of a complex evolution that is artistic with the desire to get out of syrupy and sticky harmonious songs, and that is more existential with the desire to transpose the horror of the first world war into the arts in general, music itself in particular. Our vision and audition of things became then forever different. After the four years of constant heavy shelling percussions could not sound the same any more.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

This cd is not in the original Russian language but in English.
You have to like that kind of thing, but i don't.
It is better to buy the Philips CD in the Russian language.
The sound quality is good.

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