Composition The opera resulted from a commission during Prokofiev's first visit to the United States in 1918. After well-received concerts of his works in Chicago, including his
First Symphony, Prokofiev was approached by the director of the
Chicago Opera Association,
Cleofonte Campanini, to write an opera. Conveniently the composer had already drafted a libretto during his voyage to America, one based on Gozzi's Italian play in mock ''
commedia dell'arte'' style (itself an adaptation of
Giambattista Basile's
fairy tale). He had done so using
Vsevolod Meyerhold's Russian translation of the Gozzi and had injected a dose of
Surrealism into the ''commedia dell'arte'' mix. But Russian would have been unacceptable to an American audience, and Prokofiev's English was scanty, so, with possible help from soprano
Vera Janacopoulos, he settled on French.
Performance Prokofiev conducted the premiere, which took place at the
Auditorium Theatre in
Chicago on 30 December 1921. Initial criticism was harsh. "It left many of our best people dazed and wondering"; "Russian jazz with Bolshevik trimmings"; and "The work is intended, one learns, to poke fun. As far as I am able to discern, it pokes fun chiefly at those who paid money for it". However, one newspaperman and author gave it an enthusiastic review.
Ben Hecht wrote: "There is nothing difficult about this music, unless you are unfortunate enough to be a music critic. But to the untutored ear there is a charming capriciousness about the sounds from the orchestra". Five years after the premiere, in 1926, the French opera received its first production in Russian, in
Petrograd. ''L'amour des trois oranges
was not performed again in the United States until 1949 when the New York City Opera resurrected it. As staged by Vladimir Rosing and conducted by Laszlo Halasz, the production was successful. Life'' magazine featured it in a colour photo spread. The New York City Opera mounted a touring company of the production, and the production was brought back in New York for five additional seasons (1949-51, 1954-55, 1963). Memorably a 1988 production by
Richard Jones for
Opera North, later seen at
English National Opera, New York City Opera and elsewhere, used "
scratch'n'sniff" cards handed out to the audience, suggesting various scents matching events in the staging (gunshots, Truffaldino's "wind", the aroma of oranges). The work has entered the standard repertory, with regular stagings on both sides of the Atlantic and at least a dozen complete recordings, six of them videos, to its credit.
Popular culture Its most familiar section is the March, used by
CBS in the radio-drama series
The FBI in Peace and War from 1944 to 1958, as an "FBI"
leitmotiv in films such as
The Brink's Job (1978). It is also quoted by Prokofiev himself in the ballet
Cinderella. It also has been used for the TM Books & Video's warning screen. It is also the title of the thirty-third issue of
The Maxx, a comic loosely based upon theories of
Personality psychology and
theory of mind. In Book II, Chapter 14 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's
Tender is the Night, Dick Diver wakes from a dream of a military parade marching to the 2nd movement of
The Love for Three Oranges. ==Roles==