Lady Macbeth De Mtsensk

Description

Dmitri Shostakovich began working on Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in 1930. Based on a plot by Nikolaj Leskov, the opera tells the story of the oppressed Katerina, whose life is disrupted by her intense love for the shady Sergueï and who tries to secure her happiness through murder. Upon its completion in 1934, the work was prepared simultaneously by two theaters: the premiere took place in Leningrad and two days later it was presented in Moscow, where, as in other cities, the opera enjoyed great success. Shortly after the first performances, Shostakovich was forced to change sections that were too sexually explicit. After Stalin attended a performance of the opera in 1936 and then published a scathing review of it, his colleagues and the critics who had previously approved the opera turned against Shostakovich. It was not until some thirty years later that the opera was performed again in the Soviet Union, in a toned-down version under the title Katerina Ismailova; this was also done internationally. Finally, in 1980, the original version reached Western Europe. In 2009, it was also premiered at the Vienna State Opera. The highly acclaimed premiere of the original version is presented on this recording. Ingo Metzmacher, conductor of the 2009 premiere, is a welcome guest at Europe’s most prestigious opera houses and at the Salzburg Festival, where he has conducted world premieres including Wolfgang Rihm’s opera Dionysos, Die Soldaten, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Franz Schubert’s Fierrabras and George Enescu’s OEdipe. He is also the author of works on opera and modern composers.