The Love for Three Oranges by Prokofiev, 周三 21 2月 2018, 从 (2017/2018), 導演是 Alain Maratrat,, 导体 Anton Torbeev, Valery Gergiev, Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, Vladivostok, Russia

Sergei Prokofiev’s first comic opera, derived from a play by the 18th century Italian writer Carlo Gozzi, is a work infectiously cheerful, captivating with its adolescent ingeniousness, freshness and richness of musical colours. Although Prokofiev wrote it during his first years of staying abroad, its conception is associated with his theatrical impressions in the pre-revolutionary Russia. The composer found his inspiration in a magazine called The Love For Three Oranges, published in 1914–1915 by Russian theatre icon Vsevolod Meyerhold, who turned Gozzi’s play into a manifest of the movement for the renewal of theatrical forms. Meyerhold also suggested a libretto for the future opera, which was intended as a parody of absurd theatre conventions, cliches, as well as everything stilted and stereotyped in theatrical productions. Prokofiev’s aim was to create a “cheerful performance” which would appeal to the audience by its mix of fairy-tale, joke and satire. That is why The Love for Three Oranges resembles a fantastic, magical revue with a rapid change of multifarious episodes. «The music of our times” the composer states, “calls for briskness, agility and pressure.” He imbues the opera with constant movement and sharp rhythms, giving the performance a faerie tone. The ingenious wit of young Prokofiev, with his fiery red hair and indomitable energy, which also evoked “orange” associations among his contemporaries, are very close to the creative style of French director Alain Maratrat and his team. All identification marks of this style can be found in the performance mounted by the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre: light-coloured “clothing” of the stage, enhancing a feeling of airiness and spaciousness, whimsical costumes and hats, and, first of all, - inexhaustible resourcefulness in presentation of any situation, each plot twist. Just like in other Maratrat’s performances, you won’t find here the main theatrical convention — a division into performers and spectators. The interaction between the artists and the audience allow the latter to to be a part of the performance, which provides the audience members with a substantial supply of vitamin C, even those who don’t like oranges.