Prokofiev: L`Amour Des Trois Oranges (Denève)

Introduction

A performance from Amsterdmam`s Muziektheater of Prokofiev`s `pantomime` opera based on the work of the 18th century Italian playwrite Carlo Gozzi.

Briefly, the plot is as follows.

The son of the King of Clubs is suffering from terminal hypochondria, and cannot bring himself to laugh at anything. Trouffaldino, the King`s jester, promises to throw several parties with lashings of entertainment, as he is sure this will make the Prince laugh.

In the meantime, Fata Morgana (the witch) and Chelio (the wizard) are playing cards. Chelio loses, and so the Prince`s fate is in Morgana`s hands, She plots with the Prime Minister, Leandre, to gain more power at court. She is invited to the parties - noone can laugh when Fata Morgana is around.

Trouffaldino however, doesn`t recognise her, and when he is throwing people out, the festivities being a complete failure, he kicks Fata Morgana up the arse so hard that she falls over. The Prince laughs out loud, but this isn`t necessarily the best move as Fata Morgana curses him. He will fall in love with three oranges, and search the world trying to find them.

Chelio, however, has other ideas, and tells the Prince where the oranges are, but warns him that they must not be opened unless they are near water. He gives Trouffaldino a ribbon, and tells him that it will protect them.

The oranges are, in fact, in a part of the world apparently rules by a giant, monstrous female cook who takes great pride in killing people with her copper ladle. She discovers the Prince and Trouffaldino hiding in her `kitchen` but is distracted by Trouffaldino`s ribbon. He gives it to her as a present and they escape, with the oranges.

Fairly soon, they find themselves in the desert, gasping for liquid. The Prince falls asleep so Trouffaldino, fairly thirsty himself, opens one of the oranges. A princess appears, and dies of thirst shortly afterwards. To try to help her, he opens the second orange, and the same thing happens. The Prince wakes up and see what`s been going on, but doesn`t quite understand (well, not many people would). He opens the third orange himself, and immediately falls in love with the princess inside this one. She doesn`t die (after some help from the `audience`) and so the Prince fetches his father to meet her. Fata Morgana however has other ideas, and she turns the princess into a giant rat, replacing her with the slave-girl Sméraldine (also in on the plot), who pretends to be the princess when the Royal court arrives.

Just before the `false` wedding, Chelio appears and turns the rat back into the princess (the `audience` already having defeated Fata Morgana previously)…and of course, they all live reasonably happy ever after.

Video

The DVD is presented in a region-free 16:9 Anamorphic transfer, and the video quailty couldn`t really be better. There are no obvious visual problems in any of the scenes.

Audio

The sound is equally impressive. The DTS option;s balance is examplary and there is no sign of forced microphone rebalancing to cope with some of Prokofiev`s more robust music. If there is anything to complain about at all, then something odd seems to be happening during the curtain calls at the end, when the audience applause is too quiet, and you can hear people muttering and laughing on stage.

Features

We have a 25 minute `introduction` to the opera, which is, in equal parts, pretentious and informative.

Subtitles are in English (although a little too `American` for my taste - translating the same line as `I`m terrible thirsty`, and `I`m terribly thirsty`. I won`t mention the annoying U.S spelling for much of the translation), French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.

There is also a tantalising, but far too short, glimpse into Prokofiev`s diaries during the time of writing this piece within the accompanying booklet.

Conclusion

The whole concept of this opera is plainly ridiculous, but is a complete success all round.

The Commedia del`arte aspects of the story are perfectly realised, and every character is fascinatingly grotesque and `pantomime-ish` (I`m sure that will become a real word at some point).

Being set around the court of The King of Clubs, the director (Laurent Pelly) turns the stage into a nightmare vision of decks of cards which are morphed into almost every conceivable shape (Lewis Carroll would have been highly impressed), and the action spills out from the stage giving the feeling that there is no separation between audience and performers - much of the chorus is actually a mock audience demanding the type of story they want to see, and interfering with the plot if it isn`t going their way. Some of the staging is the best thing I`ve seen in a theatre for a long time. The card game in Act 1 is a fantastic set-piece, and is just one of of great choreographed scenes which fit in with the music throughout the performance, sometimes with hilarious results.

Video direction is superbly handled by Misjel Vermeiren, who places the cameras in areas which give the impression that we are not just watching a staged performance, which is an unusual thing for many theatrical DVDs.

Musically, things are almost perfect. The Rotterdam Philharmonic plays superbly under the direction of Stéphane Denève (who is not afraid to join in the theatrics from time to time) and the singing is fantastic.

Despite not having the largest role in the opera, Willard White`s (Chelio) presence on the stage is enough to grab your attention whatever else is going on, and when he sings you know you`re watching something special.

The rest of the cast are just as good, with Anna Shafanjinskaja (Fata Morgana) and Sergei Khomov (a brilliant Trouffaldino) stealng every scene they`re in.

All in all, this is a joy to watch and has got to be a top recommendation.