SCENE: _The Throne Room of the Royal Palace._ The Prince and the
Princess Ninette are forced to endure many more trials through the evil
power of the Fata Morgana. At one juncture the Princess is even changed
into a mouse. The couple finally overcome all the hardships the witch
has devised, and in the end are happily married. Thus foiled in her
wicked sorcery, the Fata Morgana is captured and led away, leaving
traitorous Leander and Clarisse to face the King’s ire without the aid
of her magic powers.
* * *
Typical in this “burlesque opera” is Prokofieff’s penchant for witty,
sardonic writing. This cleverly evoked world of satiric sorcery is
perhaps far removed from Prokofieff’s main areas of operatic interest,
which were Russian history and literature. The pungent note of modernism
is readily heard in this music, though compared with the more dissonant
writing of Prokofieff’s piano and violin concertos, it is a kind of
modified modernism, diverting in its sophisticated discourse on the
child’s world of fairyland wonder. If, as Nestyev says, the work is “a
subtle parody of the old romantic opera with its false pathos and sham
fantasy,” it is primarily what it purports to be—a fairy tale, as gay
and sparkling and wondrous as any in the whole realm of opera.
* * *
The brilliant and bizarre “March” from this opera has become one of the
best known and most widely exploited symphonic themes of our time. It
comes as an exhilarating orchestral interlude in the first act at the
point where the straight-faced Prince and his Jester wander off in the
direction of the festival music. The “March” is built around a swaying
theme of irresistible appeal that mounts in power as it is repeated and
comes to a sudden and forceful halt, as if at the crack of a whip.
Footnotes
[1]I quote from Nestyev’s biography, translated by Rose Prokofieva and
published in this country by Alfred A. Knopf (1946).
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Transcriber’s Notes
--A few palpable typos were silently corrected.
--Retained transliteration of foreign names, including “Prokofieff”
rather than the currently-more-common “Prokofiev”
--Copyright notice is from the printed exemplar. (U.S. copyright was not
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