March from The Love For Three Oranges

After well-received first visit to the United States in 1918 Prokofiev was approached by the director of the Chicago Opera to write an opera. Prokofiev based his satirical opera The Love for Three Oranges, opus 33, also known by its French language title L'amour des trois oranges  on Carlo Gozzi's play in the Commedia dell'arte tradition. The opera premiered at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on 30 December 1921, conducted by Prokofiev.

The Love for Three Oranges became Prokofiev's most popular opera. What has made the music of The Love for Three Oranges more familiar than his other operatic fare is the popular 15–20 minute orchestral suite derived from it in 1924 and the transcription of the March and Scherzo as piano pieces.

 

The March first appears in the opera just before Truffaldino (the court jester) attempts to make the melancholic Prince laugh. The rhythms are springy and the pungent dissonances more color and bite.  The famous march tune manages to sound both suave and sassy.  Prokofiev also quotes the March in act 2 of his ballet Cinderella.