Superb reviews for Laurent Pelly’s ‘masterful’ Prokofiev
Laurent Pelly’s new production of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges opened Opéra de Lyon’s 2026–27 season on 4 October, his seventeenth production there, earning enthusiastic reviews for its visual inventiveness, comic timing and close integration of music and stage action
‘Once again, Pelly demonstrates his unerring sense of rhythm, matching theatrical timing to the music with millimetric precision. He revels in the aesthetic disputes between the Comics, Tragics, Lyricists and “Empty-Heads”, who clash throughout the play... His comic instinct hits the mark whenever required, but he also highlights the underlying darkness of this faux-farce, steeped in black magic. He achieves this through astonishing mastery of the set design (Caroline Ginet), costumes (designed by Pelly himself) and lighting (Michel Le Borgne)... The constant movement so successfully created by the director becomes one with the momentum of Prokofiev’s score’
‘Laurent Pelly’s staging constantly uses music to reinforce the characters’ gestures. These may be comic in the instant – a timpani stroke, a tuba growl – or dramatic over a longer span, as in the collective virtuosity of the more turbulent passages. The costumes he has designed also reflect Prokofiev’s distinctive expressive language, poised between classicism and modernity… Far from being arranged like anonymous elements of the décor, the chorus members are given richly individual identities. They symbolically embody the work of a director whose approach has a strongly painterly dimension… Introduced by the upside-down head of a gigantic King of Clubs, the use of playing cards is consistently effective. But it is not enough to draw good cards: one must play them at the right moment to win the game. Laurent Pelly does just that, as master of the theatrical game… There is the play on words contained in the question put to Celio at the beginning of the opera: “Is he a real magician or a theatrical magician?” A little of both, of course, as is Laurent Pelly. He never pretends to make us forget that we are watching a performance in which everything is illusion, yet nor does he forgo the power to enchant us beyond reason with his astonishing magic tricks… Even more masterful is the direction of the performers, precise as an entomologist’s work… Pelly’s costumes deserve particular praise for their extraordinary inventiveness.’
‘The Love for Three Oranges receives a thoroughly exhilarating musical and theatrical treatment in this new production, which opens the Lyon season… The emphasis is on burlesque and farce, drawing on elements of commedia dell’arte, the lively writing of the dialogue and the rapid succession of scenes… One of Laurent Pelly’s achievements is to have wanted, in his staging, to “place the music at the heart of the story, right down to the bodies of the characters” (interview in the programme booklet). Indeed, it is the music, as exemplified by the famous March, that drives the action. This approach, underscored by Caroline Ginet’s set design and Michel Le Borgne’s lighting, gives both the characters and the scenery a constant mobility… The richness of the sets, the skilful play of colours, and the transition from greyness or black and white to the shimmering lights of a colourful world are enchanting, worthy of the fable and making us eager to follow the spectacle to its conclusion. Laurent Pelly has designed costumes that allow us to laugh and dream, to evoke terror (the scenes in the “cabalistic place”) or tenderness (the opening of the oranges).’
‘Twenty-one years after first staging the work at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Laurent Pelly offers a new production, and it is an unequivocal success… Against restrained sets that allow the action to travel in next to no time, through a few well-judged partitions and lighting effects, from the hellish realm of the wicked Fata Morgana to the lair of the terrifying Cook, the director organises the singers’ movements and gestures like a gigantic, meticulously timed choreography. From the delicious chorus of Doctors to the numerous chases that punctuate the work, from the shuffling gait of the treacherous Prime Minister to the smallest movements of the heads of the King and his adviser, nothing is left to chance; above all, everything is in keeping with Prokofiev’s richly inventive score’
‘It undoubtedly takes a director as experienced in the demands of comedy as Laurent Pelly to prevent the avalanche of incidents, which follow one another without a moment’s respite, from becoming overloaded. The French director has tackled this work before, at the Amsterdam Opera in 2005, but has chosen to devise an entirely new production for this co-production between Lyon, Copenhagen, the Opéra-Comique and the Opéra national du Rhin… Pelly opts for simplicity, with a bare stage throughout the performance, animated by colourful and highly individualised direction of the actors that gives each performer a vitality of their own… The minimalist staging occasionally recalls the production of The Barber of Seville, which placed enormous musical scores at the centre of the stage. The costumes, too, display a delightful, stylised inventiveness’
‘Laurent Pelly, a familiar figure at the theatre (this is his seventeenth production in Lyon!), returns to a work he had already staged in Amsterdam in 2005. He now offers a version of extraordinary intelligence and comic flair. The director, who also designed the costumes, takes Carlo Gozzi’s fable and the traditions of commedia dell’arte and turns them into a joyful, slightly caustic manifesto for the theatre. The meta-theatrical Prologue, in which the Tragic, Comic, Lyric and Empty-Headed factions argue over what opera should be, is a moment of pure delight, setting the tone for an evening devoted to playfulness and satire of opera itself… Pelly’s direction of the performers, precise as an entomologist’s observations, is exemplary. He is full of ingenious ideas: the royal procession marches like an army of toy soldiers; the Prince and Truffaldino run frantically on the spot, creating the illusion of movement; and Farfarello is submerged in water, with only his head emerging above the surface. The costumes are equally inventive… This new production of The Love for Three Oranges is a triumph in every respect. Laurent Pelly displays all his theatrical genius, imagination, intelligence and love of play. An exuberant, hilarious and profoundly joyful opening night, which vividly reminds us what a genius of musical theatre Prokofiev was. A production not to be missed under any circumstances!’
‘Laurent Pelly succeeds in drawing us into what he calls “this implausible epic” without resorting to screens — for which we are grateful. His pared-back, effective set design by Caroline Ginet and lighting by Michel Le Borgne foreground beauty and wonder, creating joy and surprise without ever overwhelming the audience. Pelly places Prokofiev’s brilliant music at the centre of the production, making it a character in its own right, and adds a host of endearing, funny creatures, conceived with unmistakable affection.’
‘Like its source, the first of Gozzi’s ten theatrical fairy tales, this work is ceaselessly inventive. Its dazzling imagination makes it ideally suited to the stage genius of Laurent Pelly, who had already staged it in Amsterdam in 2005. A familiar figure at the Opéra de Lyon, where this is his seventeenth production, he has also designed the costumes, which are extravagant yet true to the spirit of the play and opera… Pelly and his assistants have created a monument to the theatrical genius revealed by Prokofiev’s opera. The production teems with details and ingenious ideas: the royal procession marches like an army of toy soldiers; the prince and Truffaldino run furiously on the spot to create the illusion of movement; and Farfarello is submerged in waves, with only his head visible’
Laurent Pelly's production of The Love of Three Oranges runs at Opéra de Lyon until 20 October, as co-production with Royal Danish Opera, Opéra national du Rhin and Théâtre national de l’Opéra-Comique
Photo gallery from Laurent Pelly’s The Love of Three Oranges at Opéra de Lyon
© Paul Bourdrel/Opéra de Lyon
