The Love for Three Oranges
- Robert Beale
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
Prokofiev, after Carlo Gozzi
Royal Northern College of Music
RNCM Manchester
December 7, 9,10,13, 2025: 2 hrs 10 mins
L’Amour des trois oranges, to give it its proper title, is a crazy, surreal kind of comedy opera and in this production – by the same team who created a sparkly L’etoile just a year ago at the RNCM – is a real fun-filled show.
It needs a cast line-up that could prove daunting to many a professional company (Opera North did it in 1988, but it’s not often put on), but that makes it just ideal for a music conservatoire such as the Royal Northern, and this year it shows that they have, at present, some exceptional young singers in their ranks.
The story is of a kingdom where the heir to the throne is diagnosed with incurable hypochondria and looks as if he’ll never find a princess to continue the royal lineage. The king’s niece, Clarisse, is scheming with Leandre the prime minister to take the throne herself, and Trouffaldino the jester is ordered to make the prince laugh to cure his ailment – he fails.
A good magician and a wicked witch called Fata Morgana (who has an equally wicked sidekick, Smeraldine) play cards to determine who will control the realm. In a confrontation with Trouffaldino, Fata Morgana accidentally reveals her knickers, which at last brings guffaws to the prince’s lips – but the witch curses him to have an insatiable love for three oranges. He meets a scary cook, defies a nasty demon and finally discovers three oranges, from which princesses emerge… One of them is to be his bride, but the witch turns her into a rat and substitutes Smeraldine. Will the spell be broken, and will all live happily ever after? I bet you can hardly guess.
As it's a piece based on a card game, director Mark Burns and designer Adrian Linford’s staging provides a whopping backcloth display of game-playing symbols, as well as using projection (very cleverly) to show us a Scrabble board which tells us parts of the story at different times.
There are vivid costumes evoking other sorts of play, from casino to football, and the various different choruses each have their crazy uniforms (and, most wonderfully, in Dennis the Menace shirts, the “little devils”). There’s a two-in-a-bed piece of construction, with exaggerated perspective as if apparently viewed from above, a kitchen where the mad cook dwells, straight out of panto-land, a desert featuring wriggling snakes, and finally a giant rat, whose inflated exterior ultimately unzips to reveal the beautiful princess.
Lighting is by Jake Wiltshire, movement by Bethan Rhys Wiliam, and Kevin Thraves’ chorus training expertise is again to the fore (alongside that of Sheldon Miller). Conductor Lee Reynolds pilots the huge cast and large orchestra through the score with sure skill and precision.
The opera is double-cast in the main roles, and among the ones I saw is Rafael Rojas (son of the late, great Rafael Rojas, who also trained at the Royal Northern and whose work for Opera North over the years included the biggest Romantic tenor roles), as the Prince; and Sam Rose, as Trouffaldino, who showed athletic and comedic skills as well as a strong, mature voice.
Edward Wenborn (Leandre) is a quality baritone, and like him Ellie Forrester (Fata Morgana) and Jemima Gray (La Princesse Clarice) brought personality in abundance to their “baddie” roles. They even got some panto-style boos at the end.
More info and tickets here
