The Love for Three Oranges (Russian: Любовь к трём апельсинам, or Lyubov k Tryom Apelsinam in transliteration) is an opera composed in 1919 by Sergei Prokofiev to a libretto based on the play L'Amore delle tre melarance by Carlo Gozzi.
The play itself is based on Giambattista Basile's fairy tale "The Love for Three Oranges" (#408 in the Aarne-Thompson classification system). The absurd story is in the Commedia dell'Arte tradition, and concerns a ...
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The Love for Three Oranges (Russian: Любовь к трём апельсинам, or Lyubov k Tryom Apelsinam in transliteration) is an opera composed in 1919 by Sergei Prokofiev to a libretto based on the play L'Amore delle tre melarance by Carlo Gozzi.
The play itself is based on Giambattista Basile's fairy tale "The Love for Three Oranges" (#408 in the Aarne-Thompson classification system). The absurd story is in the Commedia dell'Arte tradition, and concerns a young prince, cursed by a wicked witch and forced to voyage into distant lands in search of three oranges, each of which contains a princess. The libretto was adapted by Prokofiev and Vera Janacopoulos from Vsevolod Meyerhold's translation of Gozzi's play. The adaptation modernized some of the Commedia dell'Arte influences and also introduced a healthy dose of Surrealism. At its première, the opera was sung in French, as L'Amour des trois oranges.
The best-known piece in the opera is the "March." It is a popular orchestral selection, and was...
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