Three Loves for Three Oranges

In 1921, Sergei Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges―one of the earliest, most famous examples of modernist opera―premiered in Chicago. Prokofiev's source was a 1913 theatrical divertissement by Vsevolod Meyerhold, who, in turn, took inspiration from Carlo Gozzi's 1761 commedia dell'arte-infused theatrical fairy tale. Only by examining these whimsical, provocative works together can we understand the full significance of their intertwined lineage.
 
With contributions from 17 distinguished scholars in theater, art history, Italian, Slavic Studies, and musicology, Three Loves for Three Oranges: Gozzi, Meyerhold, Prokofiev illuminates the historical development of modernism in the arts, the ways in which commedia dell'arte's self-referential and improvisatory elements have inspired theatre and music innovations, and how polemical playfulness informs creation.
 
A resource for scholars and theater lovers alike, this collection of essays, paired with new translations of Love for Three Oranges, charts the transformations and transpositions that this fantastical tale underwent to provoke theatrical revolutions that still reverberate today.

DASSIA N. POSNER is Associate Professor of Theatre and Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern University. She specializes in Russian and Soviet theatre, the history of directing, dramaturgy, and puppetry. Her books include The Director's Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde (2016) and TheRoutledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance (co-edited, 2014).
 
KEVIN BARTIG is Professor of Musicology at Michigan State University. His research bridges archival work, reception history, and musical analysis to explore topics ranging from early twentieth-century Soviet audiovisual culture to cultural diplomacy in early Cold War Eastern Europe. His books include Composing for the Red Screen (2013) and Sergei Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky (2017). 

MARIA DE SIMONE is a PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama (IPTD) program at Northwestern University. Maria also holds an MA from Ca' Foscari University of Venice, where she was first introduced to eighteenth-century Venetian theatrical practices.