How terrible must life be if you can’t laugh? Sergei Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges is about a king who wishes to help his sick son. But only one thing can cure the malady of the heir to the throne: laughter. While the doctors are trying their luck, Truffaldino and Fata Morgana get into a fight, during which the latter is knocked over. When her mishap causes the Prince to laugh, she quickly places a curse on him: he is destined to fall in love with three oranges. The Prince and Truffaldino immediately set off on a hair-raising journey that finally takes them to a desert – a trip that can be seen as a balancing act between fantasy and reality. Here parody is tinged with tragedy and a touch of the grotesque.

The Love for Three Oranges

Semperoper Dresden

Who doesn’t know the heart-breaking story of the young couple from Mantua? Two people from feuding families who love each other so much that, after flouting tradition and their rigid family structures, they have the courage to pay for this outrage with death. Romeo and Juliet want to do more than just break the rules – they wish to love and to live freely. The version of William Shakespeare’s play, published in 1597, has been adapted many times for theatre, ballet, film, musicals and opera, including „Roméo et Juliette“ by Charles Gounod.

Roméo et Juliette

Tired of the big city and its abundance of parties and women, the dandy Eugene Onegin travels to the countryside, where he meets Tatjana, the daughter of an estate owner. Dreaming of romantic love as described in books, she thinks she has found it in Onegin. However, he is unwilling to be tied down. After brusquely rejecting her, it is only years later that Onegin comes to understand his awful mistake and his lack of courage. Yet the realization comes too late: Tatjana has already become the wife of Prince Gremin. Tchaikovsky based his touching and intimate masterpiece from 1878 on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin. The opera not only illuminates the torn inner lives of the protagonists, but also the pitfalls of modern relationships. Markus Bothe breaks up the story's chronology using flashbacks of the various characters to create an allusive series of images in which memory, mood and the drama of the present flow seamlessly into one another.

Danylo Matviienko

Events

Upcoming events

May 3 - Jun 8, 2025

Roméo et Juliette · Semperoper Dresden

3 - 11 Jul, 2025

Eugen Onegin · Semperoper Dresden

Past events

Dec 7, 2024 - Jan 3, 2025

The Love for Three Oranges · Semperoper Dresden

Future and recently performed repertoire

Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette by Gounod

Semperoper Dresden

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