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Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

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Fewer works of opera have had such a troubled history and ruinous effect on a composer than Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Anyone familiar with the life of the composer knows the story. Shostakovitch was a brilliant young Leningrad based composer who was deeply involved with the radical intellectual movements of his time, particularly the theatrical work of Mayakovsky. He had scored an early brilliant success with his student project, the Symphony No. 1 and his raucous operatic treatment of Gogol's The Nose. The prospects looked bright and when Lady Macbeth premiered it was wildly successful....until Stalin say it! The next day an article appeared in Pravda entitled :Chaos Instead of Music" and Shostakovitch was officially in disgrace...a state that cause the composer to withdraw his dark and compelling 4th symphony and which didn't really ease until the war years and the success of his Lenigrad Symphony. (And of course was repeated again after the war.) The real shame of this is that Lady Macbeth is arguably one of the greatest modern works of the operatic stage, along with Wozzeck, Peter Grimes, and maybe a few other works by Britten and Janacek.

The plot is primarily what angered Stalin...Lady Macbeth is a rather dark and erotic melodrama, which probably offended the former seminarian's latent puritanical sensibilities. Katerina, the opera's main character, is caught in a dull and lifeless marriage to a petty merchant. When she falls in love with a young worker, she first kills her father in law and then her husband. When discovered by the police, both she and her lover are sent to Siberia, where he abandons Katerina for another woman. Driven mad with jealousy and despair, Katerina pushes the other woman into a river, jumps in after her and both are drowned. The bare bones of the plot do not do justice to the power of the work. No character in the opera is virtuous...the murdered father-in-law secretly lusts after Katerina, the husband is a whimpering whiner, the lover is shallow and a real brute, and Katerina herself is vicious in the extreme. However, Shostakovitch garners real sympathy for Katerina in the marvelous musical depiction of the utter despair and boredom of her life...the almost helplessness of her seduction, and the barbarity of both her father-in-law and her husband. The work can almost be read as a proto-feminist tragedy, except that Shostakovitch still clearly abhors all of this characters' behavior.

It is also not a long stretch to see in the trauma of Katerina a portrait of Stalinist society. Repressed, held back by convention and ultimately crushing boredom (a trait familiar from much Russian literature) Katerina is almost a symbol for the sickness that artists saw eating away Russian society at it's core.

The work moves dizzyingly from tragedy to satire to pathos. Scenes involving the peasants are broadly ribald...almost shockingly so. The scenes of the police station are really a thinly veiled satire on the state of Soviet justice and the petty nature of officialdom. Katerina's mad scene, when her dead father-in-law haunts her has the drama of Mussorgsky. And in the final scene, as the prisoners trudge to Siberia, you know that everyone in the audience must have felt the resonance with the political events of the time. This scene has a depth that goes beyond the story on the stage and is clearly projected in the music. It is as powerful as the end of Janacek's House of the Dead or the Forest Scene in Boris. All of the composer's talent is employed in this work...this is Shostakovitch at his highest and most impressive. It's a work that burns itself into your brain, much like the work of Dostoevsky or Bulgakov.

This performance can only be considered a classic. Recorded by Rostropovitch after the revival of the work in the 70s in it's original form (as opposed to the reworking the opera recieved in the 50s at the hands of the composer....a reworking that cut much of the political bite of the original) The opera stars Rostrapovitch's wife Galina Vishnevskaya as the heroine. Though I am not an unbridled fan of the singer...her slavic "hoot" sometimes gets on my nerves...she is marvelous in this role and a really talented vocal actress. She is by turns, pathetic, bathetic, sarcastic, cruel and finally tragic. Also impressive in the cast is Nicolai Gedda, who looses just a bit of his customary honeyed tone in his turn as the shallow Sergey. Rostropovitch is a conductor I generally don't care for. He is a marvelous cellist, but I've heard too many National Symphony Orchestra concerts where he had no control over balances and let the brass and percussion drowned out everything else. But in Shostakovitch and Prokofiev...(and Britten actually) he is superlative on the whole. This is a great example of that. Rostrapovitch has lived everything in this music and it shows.

This is a must-have CD for any opera fan or any fan of Shostakovitch. And if you count yourself as neither, it is still a powerful artistic statement on the effects of repression on the human soul. Certainly, it stands with the very finest in the Russian operatic tradition.

Out of all the operas written in 20th century, "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" certainly stands out as being the richest in melodies and bravest in expression. It is truly the work of Genius. Shostakovich put all the power of his glorious talent for musical character sketching behind this work. In 1934 Dmitri Dmitrievich was reaching his prime, he was idealistic, and not yet taken through the years of communist punishment. In her autobiography "Galina", the singer explains that at the time the composer was also madly in love with his first wife. As a result, Katerina has some of the most beautiful music he had ever written. The men in the opera, by contrast, have the most brutal, alarming, and dark music. All the music carries shades of folksongs, but it's generous, expansive, and flowing for Katerina, and often syncopated, broken, harsh for the men. You can't help liking "Lady Macbeth" and feeling sorry for her. The opera is recorded with the great cast, but the two shining stars here are the incredible husband and wife team of Galina Vishnevskaya and Mstislav Rostropovich. Both great admirers, friends, and, in a way, pupils of the composer, exiles at the time of this recording, they put a personal touch to this opera, unmatched on record. The legendary prima donna of Bolshoi, Galina Vishnevskaya is her best here. Her immense voice adapts easily to extraordinary high demands of the role, from tender heartwarming pianissimos to powerful but always clear fff. When it comes to subtleties and vivid characterization, she has no equal. Plus, Katerina is one of her favorite roles, she has starred in the movie "Katerina Izmailova", and no matter how many recordings and productions of this opera you might see, you won't find anything to remotely resemble her performance. The greatest cellist of our time Mstislav Rostropovich proves once again that remarkable instrumentalists can make extraordinary conductors. He revels in passion, beauty, and intricacy of the score, always maintaining cohesiveness in the orchestra and warmth and fullness of sound. The interlude following the death of Boris serves as a great example when rather than the finality if death the listener feels the terror of things to come. In Nicolai Gedda's experienced hands, Sergei comes through just as the composer wanted us to see him - a shallow, weak, cowardly and indulgent man, not worthy of Katerina's love. When in scene five he says, "I wanted to declare you my wife before God" we know: he is lying! Under his reassuring that he is a man of culture and understands what love is, there is only a villager who happened to be at the right place at the right time to offer Katerina a mere substitute for what she wanted a great love to be, only to abandon her when he has nothing more to gain. Bulgarian bass Dimiter Petkov offers a very vivid portrayal of lusty old (but still strong) man, "snohatch". His Mephistophelean laugh and later - his ghostly appearance sang on very low echoing notes make him the ultimate "bad guy." Loved the policemen! What a fantastic picture of "law-and-order" in Russia, still true these days. In recent Opera News there's a photo of this scene with Vladimir Ognovenko and Kirov ensemble in modern Militia uniform! EMI offers very clear and well-balanced sound (which was, probably, extremely difficult to accomplish), but a previous edition had a full-size cover picture of the beautiful Galina Vishnevskaya. I would love to have Cyrillic texts, but the phonetic spelling is done well. An absolutely fantastic set, the best tribute to Shostakovich!

First, I must alert readers to more reviews of this recording in its earlier CD incarnation available farther down the list here on Amazon. This 2-disc, 2 1/2 hour set is re-remastered on EMI's new Prism SNS system. To my ears, it's sound is just about perfect. Beyond that, this performance of the opera that changed Shostakovich's life, led by Rostropovich from the podium and his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, in the starring role, is intensely charged from beginning to end. As for the opera itself, it is very interesting, something of an expanded version of the sprawling 4th Symphony which followed it, exhibiting a similar athematic abandon, eclecticism of genres (from fugue and passacaglia to circus-like music and austere modernism, for instance), and huge climactic passages. It is both exciting and moving. The title may be a little misleading as to nature of Katerina Ismailova, the leading character. To me she seems to combine elements of Clytemnestra, Manon Lescaut and Emma Bovary, to fatal effect for those in her way. This set great modern operatic experience.

Since other people have already described the opera's content quite reasonably well cumulatively, I'll simply re-affirm and underscore their recommendations especially relative to the other two recordings I've heard of this piece: Gjérgijev (on [...] with his Kiróv-Mariínskiy Opera Company - NB, this recording of a live performance at London's Barbican Hall is not for commercial sale and needs a good internet connection to be properly appreciated) and Chung (on Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft initially, then Decca/London and last year again on Deutsche Grammophon).

Those who don't like Vishñévskaja's voice, in my opinion, will still find her much more classy and appealing - as well as orthodox in treating her part - compared to Ewing on the Chung recording. Although both take a few liberties with the occasional note and/or rhythm, there's no question that Vishñévskaja is far more convincing, respectful of the composer's intentions and tasteful (that she studied the part with Shostakóvich himself {they were very close friends!} is so obvious as to defy any attempt at refutation) - not to mention that her approach to the rôle is much more convincing. The same applies to Rostropóvich, even though brass-haters might gravitate to Chung on that basis (here the brass really let rip, though nobody is slighted all the same!). [It should be pointed out that - like his wife Vishñévskaja - Rostropóvich was also a close friend of the composer and who in the world première of the expurgated version "Katjerína Izmáylova" in 1963 actually served as the principal 'cellist of the orchestra as one of several friends corraled to bolster what otherwise was not a first-rate ensemble (sufficiently bad so as to make Shostakóvich quite worried)!] The seal of authenticity is simply impossible to shake from this recording even though DGG has a somewhat clearer sound on their product allowing more detail to come across at times (and Chung has to also get credit no doubt too for that extra-transparent sound there). No question that I find Petkov much more sinister compared to Haugland with Chung as the evil, incestuously lecherous father-in-law Borís (quite aside from Chung encouraging all his singers to think more along the lines of "Sprechstimme" to the point of abuse!) - and here Haugland is more in his element as the Police Sergeant. A nice surprise worth also mentioning in retrospect is the exceptionally-good Russian pronunciation of Werner Krenn as Zinóviy, who gets some of the consonants better than virtually all the other singers on this recording - ironic given that the rôle he sings is that of such a pathetic wimp (shows one or two decent instincts but is so totally overruled by his evil father!). All in all, although some details occasionally get muddied up (e.g., Borís's first entry in ghost-form momentarily obliterates the woodwinds on this recording), this reading is far more compelling in every way (and it shows just how every bit of Shostakóvich's vocal writing is eminently singable - contrasted to the complaints of his first singers before Stáljin banned the opera outright, as Vishñévskaja relates in her autobiography "Galina: A Russian Story").

Don't hesitate, anybody who reads this and wants to explore this opera (especially for the first time!!!): THIS is the recording to get!!!! Afterwards you can also check out the other two or more that may be around; but even a seasoned Lady-Macbeth "lover" like me gravitates back to this recording each and every time without fail!

PS., The DGG Chung recording has been re-released (this time on the Decca/London label), coupled with 3 CDs of the same composer's lieder, many of which are sung by some of the same singers who're in Chung's cast for the opera recording. My caution against some of Chung's things has to apply with the re-issue, naturally, although at a budget price it is a very fine 2nd choice - but Rostropóvich remains the FIRST, out and away!!!). [Not knowing the lieder and those recordings coupled with the Chung opera-recording, judgement can't there be issued...]

You don't have to be an advanced opera fan, (or fanatic!) to enjoy this one, as I am an opera newbie. The music is wonderful. Don't reject this opera because it isn't in Italian or German! It is not difficult to follow the libretto in the booklet with the Russian written in transliteration rather than the Cyrillic alphabet, along with the English translation. So get ready for a wild ride! Shostakovich suffered greatly at the hands of the Soviet leadership for writing this opera, but you can enjoy it for a lifetime without fear of persecution, with your only risk being that you will become addicted to this one!

When Mstislav Rostropovich was forced to leave Russia in 1974 one of the projects he had in mind was to record Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. This recording is the result. The opera was completed in December 1932 and had its first performance in 1934. Lady Macbeth was a very popular opera and continued to be performed until the infamous review "Muddle instead of music" appeared in January 1936. The review, probably written by Stalin, caused the opera to be suppressed.

Listening to this recording thirty years after it was made one is impressed by the performance of Galina Vishnevskaya, Rostropovich's wife. Her performance is flawless and expressive of the tragedy of Katerina's situation, always a victim to the men who surround her. Katerina is a demanding role but is one that Vishnevskaya seems born to play. A perfect example of how she has made the role of Katerina her own is in the third act when the police show up to arrest the newly married Katrina and Sergei. The fear and horror Vishnevskaya expresses is marvelous to hear. She effortlessly negotiates the extremely high notes. Nicolai Gedda makes a great Sergei, conveying his cocky attitude perfectly. Dimiter Petkov is good as Boris but I must say that Aage Haugland (who sings the role of the Sergeant here) in the later recording by Myung -Whun Chung brings out the coarse and slimy character of Boris much better. Still, Mr. Petkov adds a good measure of menace to his port rail.

The conducting of Mstislav Rostropovich is outstanding. He brings out the sardonic side of the score beautifully and inspires some very expressive playing from the London Philharmonic. That this is a labor of love is very evident. The recording is well-balanced and has been nicely transferred to CD. This recording would be very hard to surpass and truly is one of the most memorable of the 20th century.

Ensemble work is superb, score is brilliant, vocal performances truly "Russian" in style and quality. I'm no expert, but I truly loved this recording.

Unlike most of the reviewers, it took me a while to enjoy this opera, and not because of the music (which is truly wonderful, and very melodic, so don't be afraid of it if you are uncertain of modern opera, which is often never melodic at all). I found the sound of the Russian very annoying. That will sound strange, but it wasn't the language itself so much as how it was sung. I had heard Russian opera before, and though it is rather "twangy" compared to Italian, German, or French, I was never disturbed by it. There was just something in the singers' voices that took me a while to appreciate. The lead soprano is still not my favorite by any means, even in other recordings of her I have. Still, what came through loud and clear was the drama and the intensity of the work. It is so terrible that such a fine composer was so neglected all because of a very oppressive regime. The characterizations created in the music are frightfully real. I am sure that this opera created such a stir with ruling leaders because it was more than true to form when commenting on their own failings.

For me, and this is only my opinion, the music is wonderful and very easily appreciated, and the men sound far Freer and natural while singing. Personally, I have never found Russian sopranos very exciting. To my ear, most of them, especially the lighter ones, sound strained, pushed, "hooty", and whinny. This dramatic soprano (the conductor's real life wife) is less like all that, but still has all those qualities. I find the Slavic voice sounds better when in lower ranges. Russian Mezzos are thrilling, and most of them have fabulous high C's and even D's, and in this case, I think the opera would be better served having a high Mezzo sing the lead female role. That, however, is just me, as I don't like the Russian Soprano sound.

All in all, though, this is an extremely wonderful recording of a very vital work. I would recommend it to anyone. And for those who are not sure of Russian opera, or even modern opera (and this falls into both catagories), don't worry, you won't be scared off by it in any way.

Never mind what Stalin has to do with the work in terms of controversy.
The plot WAS new and unconventional at THAT time. But it is another matter when it comes to the 21st century.
Rotrospovich and Vishnevskaya, together with Gedda and others put up a wonderful performance with the London Phil.
However, the work itself is tortuous to non-Russian speakers.
Throughout the 'opera', Vishnevskaya's beautiful voice wails in dismay. The music is very much 'incidental' to the storyline, without any leitmotif, let alone being 'melodious'.
On top of that, there are far too many characters than is necessary for a musical work. It might work well for a stage drama, but in terms of operatic work, these minute characters clatter and chatter in unmelodic 'dialogues', rendering listening truly tortuous. You can NEVER forgo the libretto enclosed, and the result is that by the time you reach beyond half of Act I you are deathly tired already.
What's more, the contrasts and mood stay pretty much on the same level throughout the different Acts and Scenes. The tension becomes too extended and the listeners' attention is being forced to meander and then dissipate.
I think the work may be better on DVD, though non-Russian speakers again would be forced to stay on the subtitles, making viewing terribly tiring.

This opera was purchased for a Christmas present last year for much less than $50.00. It is now too expensive.