Outlandish Curses 'The Love of Three Oranges' - reviewed by ROBERT ANDERSON '... much applause for Prokofiev's imagination ...'

Stéphane Denève and the Rotterdam Philharmonic charge through Prokofiev's score at such a lick we hardly know whether it turns out as a tragedy, a comedy or a lyrical hymn to triumphant love. The opera opens with rival claims for such favoured schemes put forward by insistent opera buffs, though I suspect Prokofiev's main loyalty was to the eccentrics and empty-heads, who are always likely to make up a cheerful percentage of any opera audience. What I do know is that somehow my pianist fingers got round Prokofiev's notes for a final stage rehearsal of the work at Spoleto forty years ago. At today's tempos I would need medical attention after the first page.

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