Ravinia 2019, Issue 6, Week 12

extended hospitalization for scarlet fever and diptheria in April. However, before rehearsals began, Campanini died suddenly on Decem- ber 19, 1919, sending the company into a tail- spin. The administration canceled its upcoming production of The Love for Three Oranges , but offered to program the opera during the 1920–21 season. Prokofiev demanded compensation over breach of contract, which Campanini re- fused, causing another postponement. For the 1921–22 season, the company appointed another director, soprano Mary Garden, who “was not afraid of modern music,” in Prokofiev’s words. The Love for Three Oranges finally reached the AuditoriumTheater stage on December 30, 1921. Prokofiev consciously softened his uncompro- misingly modern style in this score: “Taking American taste into consideration, I chose a more simple musical language than I had used in The Gambler .” Richard Taruskin, a leading au- thority in Russian music, described the style as “Rimsky-Korsakov’s Golden Cockerel by way of Stravinsky’s Petrushka .” Like those two works— one an opera, one a ballet— The Love for Three Oranges exists in a fantasy world infused with a strong element of satire. Prokofiev made a suite of six pieces from the opera in 1924. Truffaldino is charged with preparing entertain- ment to cure the Prince’s melancholy; the March (one of Prokofiev’s most familiar orhcestral pieces) accompanies the Prince’s summons to the performance. Truffaldino knocks over the sorceress Fata Morgana, exposing her misshap- en legs, which the Prince mocks. Fata Morgana curses the Prince with a love for three oranges that he must seek the world over to find. In a desert, a storm (Scherzo) blows the Prince and Truffaldino to the palace kitchen of the witch Creonta. They seize the oranges and are whisked back into the desert. SERGE RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943) Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, op. 43 Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, glockenspiel, harp, strings, and solo piano A series of new beginnings for Russian pianist, composer, and conductor Serge Rachmaninoff transpired in 1933. The year started off on the wrong foot, however, with the disappointing “official” biography by his old friend Oscar von Riesemann. Upset by factual errors and misrep- resentations, Rachmaninoff demanded changes. Although Riesemann complied with these re- quests, the musician privately disavowed this bi- ographical treatment. However, all disappoint- ment faded with the christening of his new villa in Switzerland—named “Senar,” after SErgei and NAtalia Rachmaninoff—and its new Steinway piano, a surprise gift from the maker. Invigorated by his newly completed residence, beautifully situated on the shores of Lake Lu- cerne, Rachmaninoff envisioned a new com- position for piano and orchestra. He silently hoped that this work would provide a worthy concert vehicle for his own virtuosity, unlike the substandard Fourth Piano Concerto (1926). Rachmaninoff based his new score—complet- ed between July 3 and August 18—on melodic material from Nicolò Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A minor. (Vladimir Horowitz claimed that Rachmaninoff would call him every evening to play a new variation over the telephone.) Realizing that he had created a masterpiece, Rachmaninoff excitedly wrote to his sister-in- law, Sofia Satina: “This piece I have completed is written for piano and orchestra and is about 20–25 minutes long. But it is not a ‘concerto,’ and its name is ‘Symphonic Variations on a Theme by Paganini.’ I shall tell [my manager Charles] Foley to arrange for me to play it this season in Philadelphia and Chicago. If he does so, and I have little doubt that he will, then you will hear it. I am glad that I have been able to write this piece in the first year of living in the new Senar. It is some compensation for the many stupidities I allowed myself to commit in building Senar! True! So I think!” Rachmaninoff soon renamed this work Rhap- sody on a Theme by Paganini, op. 43, although its fundamental structure remained a series of variations on the borrowed tune. Paganini had realized the potential of this little melody, com- posing his own variations in the Caprice No. 24, and other 19th-century composers continued this tradition, most notably Liszt and Brahms. Thematic transformation (and orchestral inge- nuity) achieved even greater subtlety and depth in Rachmaninoff ’s Rhapsody. An introduction presents disconnected fragments of the caprice melody. The hushed first variation actually pre- cedes the statement of Paganini’s theme. The first 10 variations remain in the original key of A minor. With variations 7 through 10, Rachmani- noff fuses the caprice melody with the Dies irae chant from the Mass for the Dead. Variation 11 SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953) Scherzo and March from The Love for Three Oranges Suite Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, tubular bells, xylophone, cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, bass drum, side drum, tambourine, two harps, and strings Actor and director VsevolodMeyerhold, the orig- inator of the anti-realist Theater of the Absurd, founded a theatrical magazine in 1913 called The Love for Three Oranges , after an Italian commedia dell’arte play written and produced by Carlo Go- zzi in Venice in 1761. The premier issue contained a translation of Gozzi’s comedy, which Meyer- hold commended to Sergei Prokofiev before the composer’s trans-Pacific voyage to the United States in 1918. Prokofiev heeded his friend’s advice to read it on the ocean liner, and by the time the ship docked in San Francisco, he had sketched an opera libretto based on that adaptation. Traveling across the country en route to New York, the celebrated musician stopped in Chi- cago, accepting an invitation made two years earlier by Cyrus McCormick. Prokofiev met numerous local dignitaries, among them Cleo- fonte Campanini, director of the Chicago Grand Opera Company. Campanini asked whether the Russian had composed an opera that he might produce in Chicago. Unfortunately, the score and parts for The Gambler , Prokofiev’s only pre- viously completed theatrical work, were stored away in the Mariinsky Theater. Undeterred, the enterprising director proposed a commissioned opera. Prokofiev instantly thought of his Love for Three Oranges libretto. When Campanini learned that the original play emanated from a fellow Italian—“Gozzi! Our lovely Gozzi! But that’s wonderful,” he reportedly exclaimed—the commission became a reality. The premiere was scheduled for the following season. Prokofiev completed the opera on October 1, an amazing accomplishment considering his Natalia and Serge Rachmaninoff Sergei Prokofiev AUGUST 19 – AUGUST 25, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 95