Rotation bug fixed in version 12.1 which is now in the repository.

To get 9 views, scroll horizontally and select the desktops you want, they're black since there's no background set to them.

You need to enable forced rotation in /usr/share/hildon-desktop/transitions.ini (set 0 to 1) to force rotation of all applications (conversations included).

A future update will include portrait support in modest.