Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Op. 29 (), is an opera in four acts and nine scenes by Dmitri Shostakovich. The libretto, jointly written by Alexander Preis and the composer, is based on the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov.
Dedicated by Shostakovich to his first wife, the physicist Nina Varzar, the opera was first performed on 22 January 1934 at the Leningrad Maly Operny Theatre, and received its Moscow premiere two days later. It combines elements of expressionism and verismo, telling the story of Katerina Izmailova, a lonely woman in 19th-century Russia who falls in love with one of her husband's workers and becomes involved in a sequence of murders.
Performance history
The opera was initially successful in both Leningrad and Moscow, and was also performed outside the Soviet Union during the 1930s. According to Tim Ashley in The Guardian, it had received nearly 200 performances in the Soviet Union and had also been heard in Copenhagen, Prague, New York and London before its official condemnation. Recent scholarship has identified the journalist David Zaslavsky as the likely author of the article.
In 1962 Shostakovich revised the opera under the title Katerina Izmailova (), assigning it Op. 114. The revision altered parts of the score and libretto, including changes to act 1, scene 3 and the replacement of two orchestral interludes. Katerina Izmailova was first performed on 26 December 1962 at the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre in Moscow.
Selected 21st-century productions
Since 2000, the opera has continued to be staged by major opera houses and festivals. Selected productions include:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year
! Opera house / city
! Stage director
! Conductor
|-
| 2000
| Teatro Real, Madrid
| Sergio Renán
| Mstislav Rostropovich
|-
| 2000
| Helikon Opera, Moscow
| Dmitry Bertman
| Vladimir Ponkin
|-
| 2001
| National Theatre, Prague
| David Radok
| František Preisler
|-
| 2001
| Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva
| Nicolas Brieger
| Armin Jordan
|-
| 2002
| Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
| Stein Winge
| Alexander Anissimov
|-
| 2003
| San Francisco Opera, San Francisco
| Johannes Schaaf
| Donald Runnicles
|-
| 2003
| Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg
| Irina Molostova
| Valery Gergiev
|-
| 2004
| Royal Opera House, London
| Richard Jones
| Antonio Pappano
|-
| 2004
| Komische Oper Berlin, Berlin
| Hans Neuenfels
| Vassily Sinaisky
|-
| 2006
| Dutch National Opera / Holland Festival, Amsterdam
| Martin Kušej
| Mariss Jansons
|-
| 2006
| Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv
| Dmitri Bertman
| Vladimir Ponkin
|-
| 2008
| Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Florence
| Lev Dodin
| James Conlon
|-
| 2009
| Vienna State Opera, Vienna
| Matthias Hartmann
| Kirill Petrenko
|-
| 2009
| Opéra Bastille, Paris Opera, Paris
| Martin Kušej
| Hartmut Haenchen
|-
| 2011
| Teatr Wielki im. Stanisława Moniuszki, Poznań
| Marcelo Lombardero
| Gabriel Chmura
|-
| 2015
| Ruse State Opera / Sofia
| Vera Nemirova
| Nayden Todorov
|-
| 2016
| Bavarian State Opera, Munich
| Harry Kupfer
| Kirill Petrenko
|-
| 2025
| La Scala, Milan
| Vasily Barkhatov
| Riccardo Chailly
|}
Roles
thumb|upright=1.3|2006 performance, [[Serbian National Theatre]]
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! Role
! Voice type
! Premiere cast, 22 January 1934<br />Conductor: Samuil Samosud
|-
| Boris Timofeyevich Izmailov, a merchant
| high bass
|
|-
| Zinoviy Borisovich Izmailov, his son
| tenor
|
|-
| Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, wife of Zinoviy Borisovich
| soprano
| Agrippina Ivanovna Sokolova
|-
| Sergei, a workman employed at the Izmailovs
| tenor
|
|-
| Aksinya, a workwoman employed at the Izmailovs
| soprano
|
|-
| Tattered peasant / Village drunk
| tenor
|
|-
| Workman, employed at the Izmailovs
| baritone
|
|-
| Steward, a workman employed at the Izmailovs
| bass
|
|-
| Porter, a workman employed at the Izmailovs
| bass
|
|-
| First workman, employed at the Izmailovs
| tenor
|
|-
| Second workman, employed at the Izmailovs
| tenor
|
|-
| Priest
| bass
| Pavel Yuravlenko
|-
| Police inspector
| bass
| Aleksei Petrovich Ivanov
|-
| Local nihilist
| tenor
|
|-
| Policeman
| bass
|
|-
| Old convict
| bass
|
|-
| Sonyetka, a convict
| contralto
|
|-
| Female convict
| soprano
|
|-
| Sergeant
| bass
|
|-
| Sentry
| bass
|
|-
| Ghost of Boris Timofeyevich
| bass
| Georgiy Nikolaievich Orlov
|-
| colspan="3" |Chorus: SATB, divided parts – Workmen and women employed at the Izmailovs; policemen; wedding guests; male and female convicts
|}
Synopsis
Although the opera shares the basic characters and outline of Leskov's novella, it differs from the original story in plot detail and emphasis. One example occurs in the convict convoy scene after Katerina gives Sergei her stockings: in the opera, all the women mock Katerina, whereas in the novella Sergei and Sonyetka mock her while Fiona and Gordyushka shame them in response to their cruelty.
Act 1
Scene 1: Katerina's room
Katerina is unhappily married to Zinovy, a provincial flour merchant. She complains to herself of her loneliness. Her father-in-law, Boris, angered at her response to his saying that mushrooms are his favourite dish, says that her loneliness is her fault because she has not produced an heir. She replies that Zinovy cannot give her a child, which Boris disdains. He then threatens her if she decides to accept a youthful lover. Zinovy is called away on business, and Boris, against his son's inclinations, makes Katerina swear before an icon to be faithful. A servant, Aksinya, tells Katerina about the womanising new clerk, Sergei.
Scene 2: The Izmailovs' yard
Sergei and his comrades are sexually harassing Aksinya. Katerina intervenes. She berates him for his machismo and asserts that women are as brave and capable as men. Sergei is willing to prove her wrong, and they wrestle; she is thrown down and Sergei falls on top of her. Boris appears. Katerina says that she tripped and Sergei fell while trying to help her. The other peasants back her up. Boris is suspicious and roars at the peasants, telling them to get back to work, before ordering Katerina to fry some mushrooms for him and threatening to tell Zinovy about her behaviour.
Scene 3: Katerina's room
Katerina prepares to go to bed. Sergei knocks on her door with the excuse that he wants to borrow a book because he cannot sleep, but Katerina has none; she cannot read. As she is about to close the door, he attempts to seduce her by recalling their wrestling match earlier that day. He enters the room and forces himself on her. Afterwards, she tells him to leave, but he refuses and she agrees to begin an affair with him. Boris knocks on the door and confirms that Katerina is in bed, then locks her in. Sergei is trapped in the room, and the two make love again.
Act 2
Scene 4: The yard
One night a week later, Boris, unable to sleep because of unease about thieves, is walking in the courtyard in the pre-dawn darkness. Remembering his own days as a young rake and knowing Zinovy's low libido, he considers seducing Katerina himself in order to fulfil his son's marital duties. He spots Sergei climbing out of Katerina's window. He catches him and publicly whips him as a burglar, then has him locked up. Katerina witnesses this but cannot stop it because she remains locked in her room. When she eventually climbs down the drainpipe, the other servants restrain her on Boris's order. Exhausted after beating Sergei, Boris demands a meal, saying that he will whip Sergei again the next day, and sends a servant to recall Zinovy, telling him to say that there is trouble at home. Katerina adds rat poison to mushrooms and gives them to Boris. As he dies, calling for a priest, she retrieves the keys to free Sergei. The priest, called by the arriving morning shift of workers who find Boris in agony, arrives; Boris vainly tries to say that he was poisoned and falls back dead, pointing at Katerina. Katerina, weeping crocodile tears, convinces the priest that Boris accidentally ate poisonous mushrooms, and he says a prayer over Boris's body.
Scene 5: Katerina's room
Katerina and Sergei are together. Sergei says that their affair will have to end because Zinovy is about to return, and that he wishes he and Katerina could marry. Katerina assures him that they will marry but refuses to tell him how she will arrange it. Sergei falls asleep; Katerina is tormented by Boris's ghost and cannot sleep. Later she hears Zinovy returning. He has been called back by one of the servants with news of his father's death. Although Sergei hides, Zinovy sees his trousers and belt and guesses the truth. As he and Katerina quarrel, he whips her with the belt. Hearing Katerina's cries, Sergei emerges and confronts Zinovy, who then tries to escape and call the servants. Katerina stops him: she and Sergei strangle him, and Sergei finishes him off with a blow to the head from a heavy candlestick. The lovers hide the corpse in the wine cellar.
Act 3
Scene 6: Near the cellar
Following Zinovy's disappearance, he is presumed dead. Katerina and Sergei prepare to get married, but she is tormented by the knowledge that Zinovy's corpse is hidden in the wine cellar. Sergei reassures her, and they leave for the wedding ceremony. A drunken peasant breaks into the cellar, finds Zinovy's body and goes to fetch the police.
Scene 7: The police station
The police complain about not being invited to the wedding and vainly try to distract themselves by tormenting a socialist schoolteacher for his alleged atheism, when the peasant arrives and gives them the opportunity for revenge.
Scene 8: The Izmailov garden
Everyone is drunk at the wedding. Katerina sees that the cellar door is open, but the police arrive as she and Sergei try to escape.
Act 4
Scene 9: A temporary convict camp near a bridge
On the way to katorga in Siberia, Katerina bribes a guard to allow her to meet Sergei. He blames her for everything. After she leaves, Sergei tries to seduce another convict, Sonyetka, who demands a pair of stockings as her price. Sergei tricks Katerina into giving him hers, and then gives them to Sonyetka. Sonyetka and the other convicts taunt Katerina, who pushes Sonyetka into an icy river and falls in herself. They are swept away, and the convict train moves on.
Critical reception
The opera's reception has often centred on its mixture of satire, violence, sexuality and sympathy for Katerina. Early Western responses sometimes focused on the explicitness of the musical and dramatic language; a 1935 review in the New York Sun used the term "pornophony" for the music accompanying the sexual encounter between Katerina and Sergei.
The most consequential criticism came from the Soviet press. The 1936 Pravda article "Muddle Instead of Music" condemned the opera as coarse, confused and alien to Soviet taste; the article became a turning point in Shostakovich's career and in Soviet musical politics.
Recordings
Important recordings include the 1979 EMI studio recording conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, with Galina Vishnevskaya as Katerina and Nicolai Gedda as Sergei, and the 1993 Deutsche Grammophon recording conducted by Myung-whun Chung with the Orchestre de l'Opéra Bastille and Maria Ewing in the title role.