Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)
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Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (Леди Макбет Мценского уезда in Russian, Ledi Makbet Mtsenskovo Uyezda in transliteration) is an opera in four acts by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich to a Russian libretto by Alexander Preis and the composer, inspired by and named after the famous story by Nikolai Leskov. The title is sometimes shortened to Lady Macbeth. It was first performed on 22 January 1934 at the Leningrad Maly Theatre.
It tells the story of a lonely woman in 19th century Russia, who falls in love with one of her husband's servants and is driven to murder. The work incorporates elements of expressionism and verismo. After being condemned by Stalin it was banned in the Soviet Union for almost thirty years.
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Plot summary
Act 1
Scene 1. Katerina's room: Katerina is unhappily married to Zinovy, a country gentleman. She complains to herself of her loneliness. Her father-in-law Boris says it is her fault for not producing an heir, but she blames her husband Zinovy for not being able to make her love him. Zinovy is called away on business, and Boris makes Katerina swear to be faithful. A servant, Aksinya, tells Katerina about the womanising new farm hand, Sergei.
Scene 2. The Ismailovs' yard: Sergei and his comrades have been teasing Aksinya. Katerina confronts him; they wrestle; she is thrown. When Boris appears, she says that she tripped.
Scene 3. Katerina's room: Katerina goes to bed. Sergei comes to borrow a book, then embraces her.
Act 2
Scene 4. The yard: One night a week later, Boris sees Sergei climbing out of Katerina's window. He catches him and whips him as a thief, then has him locked up. Katerina gives him some poisoned mushrooms and as he is dying retrieves the keys to free Sergei.
Scene 5. Katerina's room: Katerina and Sergei are together. After he falls asleep, she sees Boris' ghost. Later she hears Zinovy returning. Although Sergei hides, Zinovy sees his clothing and guesses the truth. Together Katerina and Sergei kill Zinovy.
Act 3
Scene 6. Near the cellar: Katerina and Sergei prepare to get married. A peasant finds Zinovy's body in the cellar and goes to fetch the police.
Scene 7. The police station: The police complain about not being invited to the wedding. The peasant arrives and gives them the opportunity for revenge.
Scene 8. The Ismailov garden: Everyone is drunk at the wedding. Katerina sees that the cellar door is open, but the police arrive as she and Sergei are trying to escape.
Act 4
Scene 9. A temporary convict camp near a bridge: On the way to 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. She demands a pair of stockings as her price. Sergei tricks Katerina into giving him hers, whereupon he gives them to Sonyetka. Sonyetka and the other convicts taunt Katerina, who pushes them both into a river. They are swept away and the convict train moves on.
Creation and reception
The plot is based on the story of the same name by Nikolai Leskov, although the opera's combination of satire and tragedy came from Dostoevsky (Wilson, 460). One of the most significant departures from Leskov's story is the omission of Katerina's third murder, of her husband's nephew. Shostakovich began work on the opera in October 1930, writing part of the libretto himself. He completed it in December 1932, and dedicated it to his wife. It divided the critics, but was a big popular success at home and abroad.
Stalin attended a performance on 26 January 1936, but walked out after the third act. On 28 January, Pravda carried a denunciatory article entitled "Muddle Instead of Music", written either by Stalin or on his orders. In the ensuing months, further articles appeared condemning the composer and his music, some written by former friends (Wilson, 110-111). At this time he was thrown back on his closest friends and his own resources, saying "Even if they chop my hands off, I will still continue to compose music- albeit I have to hold the pen in my teeth." (Wilson, 111).
The work was banned in the USSR until 1961, when a revised version (with the sexual elements toned down, and retitled as Katerina Izmailova) was approved by the Composers' Union. It was first performed in December of the following year, to renewed domestic and overseas success.
Criticism
One criticism of the work focused on its sexual content, particularly the way in which the action is depicted in the music. The music critic of the New York Sun called it "pornophony" (Taruskin), while Stravinsky described the opera as "lamentably provincial", considering the musical portrayal primitively realistic (Wilson 96).
The thrust of the Pravda criticism was in terms of morality; it condemned the opera's sympathetic portrayal of the murderess. This criticism was revived by Taruskin in his 1989 article, where he interprets the work as "a justification of genocide". Daniil Zhitomirsky accuses the work of "primitive satire" in its treatment of the priest and police, but acknowledges the "incredible force" of the last scene (Wilson 95).
At the time, the composer justified the sympathetic portrayal of Katerina in Soviet terms, saying she was a victim of the circumstances of oppressive, pre-revolutionary Russia. (Wilson 96).
Further reading
- Taruskin, Richard; "The Opera and the Dictator: the peculiar martyrdom of Dmitri Shostakovich"; The New Republic, March 20 1989 pp. 34-40.
- Wilson, Elizabeth; Shostakovich: A Life Remembered; Princeton Univ Pr 1994. ISBN 0691044651 .es:Lady Macbeth del distrito de Minsk