“Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”. Opera

Premieres: 
January 22, 1934. Leningrad State Academic Maly Opera Theatre. Director N. Smolich. Conductor S.Samosud.
January 24th ... under the title "Katerina Ismailova" in the Nemirovich-Danchenko State Music Theatre in Moscow. Conductor G. Stolyarov.
Premiere of the second version of the opera "Katerina Ismailova" took place on January 8, 1963 on the stage of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Academic Music Theatre in Moscow.
Premieres abroad: In 1934-1936 "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" was staged in a number of foreign theatres (in Bratislava, Buenos Aires, Cleveland, Copenhagen, New York, Prague, Stockholm, Philadelphia and Zurich).
First Edition: The score of the second version: "Muzyka" Publishers, 1965.

Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Opera

Op. 29

Opera in four acts, with libretto by Aleksandr Preis and the composer, based on the novel-sketch written in 1865 by Nikolai Leskov.

Dedication: Nina Vasilievna Varzar.

Shostakovich worked on the opera for almost three years, from 1930 to December 1932. We can assume the work began on 14 January 1930, which was the date the author wrote on the first page of the piano draft with instrumentation layout. There are author’s notes indicating the time and place of the beginning and end of each act of the opera in the author’s manuscript of the score that has survived:

- Act One was begun on 14 October 1930 in Leningrad, work on it continued in 1931 in the cities of Gudauta and Batum and was finished on 5 November 1931 in Tiflis (Tbilisi);
- Act Two was begun on 19 November 1931 in Leningrad and finished on 8 March 1932 in Moscow;
- Act Three was begun on 5 April 1932 in Leningrad and finished on 15 August 1932 in Gaspra (the Crimea);
- Act Four was finished on 17 December 1932 in Leningrad (there is no note on the time and place of the beginning of the work on Act Four in the author’s manuscript of the score).

Soon after the opera was finished on 17 January 1933, a fragment of it was performed at the Leningrad Philharmonic—the interlude between Scene Four and Scene Five (passacaglia), which, according to the reminiscences of an eyewitness, “was enthusiastically received by the audience”.

In 1932-1934, along with finishing the score of the opera and preparing for its premiere in two theatres at once, the Maly Opera Theatre in Leningrad and the Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre in Moscow, Shostakovich continued working on the piano score of the opera. In 1933, a preliminary version was issued—a collotype edition of the piano score in which the dates of the author’s last proofreading feature at the end of each act—they all date to April-May 1933. The composer probably finished this work entirely less than a year later: in June 1934, the piano score had already been submitted to the State Music Publishers in Moscow, and in August 1935, it was signed to press and published soon thereafter.

The premiere of the opera was held at almost the same time both in Leningrad and Moscow: on 22 January 1934 at the State Academic Maly Opera Theatre (conductor Samuil Samosud; director Nikolai Smolich) and on 24 January 1934 at the State Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre (production supervisor Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko; conductor Grigori Stolyarov; director Boris Mordvinov). Both performances were very successful and continued to thrive for the next two years (for example, more than eighty performances were shown in Leningrad during this time). In Moscow, the opera was called Katerina Izmailova; moreover, as suggested by the director, several changes were introduced into the opera libretto. The libretto text of the Moscow performance was soon published. These performances were both highly praised by the critics and the composer himself.

The opera of the young talented composer was enthusiastically received by the public and music community of Moscow and Leningrad. The press commented on the opera’s virtues; it was assigned one of the first places in Soviet music culture.

In 1934-1936, the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was performed abroad with invariable success—in Bratislava, Cleveland, Stockholm, Prague, Philadelphia, Zurich, London, Ljubljana, Buenos Aires, and Copenhagen. In New York, fragments of the opera were performed under the baton of
Arturo Toscanini, and then the opera was performed on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera (conductor Arthur Rodzinsky). These productions and concert performances brought the opera and its author world renown and popularity. In 1935, the opera was performed on the second stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The premiere was held on 26 December 1935 under the baton of Alexander Melik-Pashaev (stage director was Nikolai Smolich).

It was during this time of Lady Macbeth’s widespread recognition and success abroad that the situation dramatically changed in the composer’s homeland. A month after the premiere—on 26 January 1936—Stalin attended a performance on the second stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. Two days later, on 28 January, an article called “Muddle Instead of Music” was published in Pravda on Stalin’s instructions and expressing his opinion about the opera. It described the opera as a work that did not meet the demands of the Soviet public, while the author was accused of naturalism and vulgarity. The tone of the article was disgustingly mocking; the music was described in a sharp and rude manner. Published on the front page of the newspaper as an editorial, this article became a guide to action: another political campaign began “against formalism and falsity in music”, and Shostakovich and his opera were chosen as the main target. “Creative discussions”, at which both the opera and its author were slandered, were held all over the country in music and public organizations. Soon the opera was removed from the repertoire and banned from the stage. It seemed that it would unlikely ever return to Soviet opera theatres. The events involving Lady Macbeth also affected the fate of the Fourth Symphony, which the composer finished in 1936: it was not performed for many years. This was an extremely difficult time for Shostakovich. Triumph was replaced by a fall from grace. Many of those who exalted his music now turned away from him and, in harmony with the official situation, criticized and defamed his opera in every way. In these difficult circumstances, Shostakovich showed extreme strength of spirit. He did not repent of his mistakes and did not denounce Lady Macbeth.

In the mid-1950s, when there was hope that Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District would be staged at the Maly Opera Theatre in Leningrad, Shostakovich began working on a second edition of the opera. But the history of this edition was also full of drama at first. In 1956, a special commission chaired by Dmitri Kabalevsky did not recommend the opera for production “due to its major ideological and artistic defects”. The premiere of the opera’s second edition (Katerina Izmailova) was not held until 1963 on the stage of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre in Moscow under the baton of Gennadi Provatorov. In 1965, its score was published by Muzyka Publishers. The score of the first edition of the opera was never published during Shostakovich’s lifetime.

During the second half of the 1970s, the composer’s widow, Irina Shostakovich, gave Mstislav Rostropovich her copy of the manuscript for performing and recording. After the Rostropovich recorded the opera in 1978, this music ended up at Hans Sikorski Publishers, after they obtained exclusive rights to hire out the first edition of the opera from Shostakovich’s descendants. Later Hans Sikorski Publishers gave a copy of this edition to DSCH Publishers for hire in Russia and post-soviet territory.

The first edition of the opera of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was staged in a concert performance for the first time after a long interval—in St. Petersburg in 1996 and in Moscow in 1997— under the baton of Rostropovich. This performance was the most important event in the country’s music life. In subsequent years, a few more performances of the opera were held in Russia (at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, at the Helikon Opera Theatre in Moscow, and at the Novosibirsk Opera Theatre). In 2004, the first edition of the opera was performed on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (music director of the performance and conductor Zoltan Peshko, director-producer Temur Chkheidze).

Recordings:

- Galina Vishnevskaya (Katerina), Nicolai Gedda (Sergei), Dimiter Petkov (Boris), Werner Krenn (Zinovi); Ambrosian Opera Chorus, John McCarthy (chorus-master), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Mstislav Rostropovich (conductor). 1978 // HMV ASD 3664-6.
- Maria Ewing (Katerina), Sergei Larin (Sergei), Aage Haugland (Boris), Philip Langridge (Zinovi), Eléna Zaremba (Sonyetka); Chorus and Orchestra of the Opéra-Bastille, Paris; Myung-Whun Chung (conductor). 1992 // Deutsche Grammophon 437 511-2CH, 1993.