The Love for Three Oranges

INDIANA UNIVERSITY (2008)

THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES by Sergei Prokofiev, based on the play L’amore delle tre melarance by Carlo Gozzi
Conductor: Robert Wood
Cast: Matthew/Webb, Baldwin/McGrath, van Arsdale/Wells, Ewing/Gulden, Jennings/Smokovich, Orduna/Raymond, Allicock/Brown
Production: C. D. Higgins, (scenery/clothes), M. Schwandt (lighting), N. Muni (projections)

“One is accosted by a three-ring circus, a carnival, Mardi Gras, Halloween, you name it. The sights and sounds are brash, brilliant, biting. The goings-on are bustling and busy. And one never knows what to expect next in the IU Opera Theater production of Prokofiev’s “The Love for Three Oranges,” currently on view at the Musical Arts Center. The intended effect is to be dream- or nightmare-like, to build a daffy, manic, can-this-be-happening atmosphere, an event ad libbed, extemporaneous, because — as an announcer advises after the houselights dim — the evening’s planned opera has been cancelled, leaving it to the performers to come up with a spur-of-the- moment replacement. Thereafter, those performers will unfurl their “Love for Three Oranges,” while interacting with clusters of onlookers: hard hats, punkers, Mousketeers, club ladies, and those from a community’s grab-bag. None of what happens, of course, has been left to chance. It’s all been planned, deftly choreographed by visiting stage director Nicholas Muni, a knowing craftsman. Not only did he maneuver the many characters through their frenzied paces. He infused them with a reason and taste for why they were being asked to do what they were doing: to imbue the production with a commedia dell’arte sensibility.”
– Peter Jacobi, The Herald Times (November, 2008)