We are now in peak panto time, so Sergei Prokoviev’s L’Amour des Trois Oranges (The Love for Three Oranges) is a ripe choice for the RNCM’s winter opera offering.
It’s got a young prince, a heroic quest, evil witches, enchanting princesses, more grotesquely cross-dressed men than you’d anticipate, a fair smattering of fart jokes AND a happy ending. Could things get more seasonal and zesty? There is an historical link to pantomime in the opera’s antecedents too. Young Prokoviev may well have penned his new libretto in the wake of the Russian Revolution while sailing to the USA, where fashionable concert-goers were primed to be astonished by his edgy and all too modern style, but the opera is nevertheless based on an 18th century Italian play that strove – just as panto has done – to keep older commedia dell’arte traditions alive. The roots of Oranges are squarely planted in popular theatre, borrowed plots, clownish exaggeration, action and caricature.
Aaron Rishel, Ellie Forrester © Craig Fuller
This is parody: comic stuff with stock characters, poking fun at opera’s penchant for high seriousness while still providing moments of great musical and dramatic beauty. Director (and RNCM graduate) Mark Burns strikes this tricky balance well. If the insistently absurd plotline risks wearing thin, and I admit that some of my receptive vim and vigour had started to droop by act four, it’s nevertheless all well humoured and done with style. I smiled for most of the time and laughed about eight times – a high laugh-count for comic opera. When not one but two beautiful princesses magically appear, only to sing a short tragic aria, wilt with thirst and drop down dead, you don’t need to be well-versed in opera to clock where the humour is.
Prokoviev’s music is similarly fun. It’s vivid and entertaining. Aside from a famous and ear-wormy orchestral march, it may lack ‘tunes you can hum’ but it’s immediate and approachable. Conductor Lee Reynolds ensures there’s a brisk energy from the excellent RNCM opera orchestra. Meanwhile, Adrian Linford’s colourful sets and costumes shriek ‘glittering surrealism’ at us – the opera certainly does have at least one foot in the surrealist camp – and Jacob Wiltshire’s lighting adds a hyper-expressive and sensuous sheen. The whole thing is gloriously designed to bits. It has the dazzle factor.
The RNCM operas are, of course, a good opportunity to see young professional talent on stage, and Mark Burns deserves huge credit for helping his large cast achieve such uniformly sparkling performances. Baritone Edward Wenborn and mezzo-soprano Jemima Gray, as the scheming Prime Minister Léandre and conniving Princess Clarice, work together excellently – their voices warm and characterful. Ellie Forester gives us an enjoyably full-on, full-throated ‘evil witch’ routine as Fata Morgana, and Mexican tenor Rafael Rojas’s Prince is gently and endearingly daft.
For particular praise, I’m going to home in on Sam Rose’s standout performance as the jester figure Trouffaldino. He’s got a soaring tenor voice you can’t help but notice. He leaps about the stage with impressive oomph, sports a lovely rainbow-mohican and has spot-on comic bones. All the soloists are ably surrounded by an elaborately outfitted RNCM opera chorus that exudes good fun.
By Andrew Moor, Opera Correspondent
Main image: Rafael Rojas and Sam Rose © Craig Fuller
Andrew’s opera advice: I strongly recommend looking out for the RNCM’s spring production, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at the end of March.
