Opera "Katerina Izmaylova": content, video, interesting facts, history

D. Shostakovich opera "Katerina Izmaylova" (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk)

"Katerina Izmaylova" is an opera, which, like its heroine, was overly prepared for a tragic fate. Named as anti-people, reworked several times, twice banned and gone from the stages of the Soviet theaters for thirty years, she was revived again like a phoenix bird. Written by Dmitry Shostakovich still in her younger years, becoming a symbol of the confrontation between the authorities and the artist, today she is recognized as the most significant work of all that was created in the operatic genre in the twentieth century.

Summary of the opera Shostakovich "Katerina Izmailova"and many interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary of "Katerina Izmailova"

The middle of the XIX century. Russia. A small county town Mtsensk.

The young merchant's wife, Katerina Lvovna Izmaylova, lives very boringly in the house of her husband, Zinovy. There is nothing to do, the Lord God does not give children from an unloved husband. One lesson only: listen to bitter reproaches from Boris Timofeevich's hateful father-in-law.

Zinovy ​​Borisovich, having received the news that a dam had been destroyed in one of the mills, was going on the road. Saying goodbye, he warns his father that he hired a new clerk Sergei, and in the meantime Boris Timofeevich makes Katerina kneeling to swear allegiance to her husband. When everyone broke up, the cook Aksinya warns her hostess that the newly hired worker, Sergey, is an insidious deceiver and, for this, was expelled from her previous job.

While the owner is away, the yard people of the Izmailovs are having a bad time: putting Aksinho in a barrel, they rudely make fun of her. Seeing such a disgrace, Katerina stands up for the cook and promises the instigator Sergey to beat him. Boris Timofeevich stops the joking fight, threatening the daughter-in-law that he will tell everything to his son.

It is evening. Katerina is sad in the bedroom. Suddenly, Sergey appears and asks to give him some book to read. The treacherous seducer, who knows how to tempt a woman, speaks Katherine with tender words and tries to embrace.

One evening, tormented by insomnia, Boris Timofeevich wanders around the yard. Seeing the light in the window of the sister-in-law, he comes closer and sees Sergei jumping out of it. Grabbing the worker by the collar, the old man calls the yard people with a cry and then severely beats him under Katerina. A woman tries her best to protect her lover. Boris Timofeevich the statute to make beatings orders to lock the exhausted clerk in the storeroom. Then he asks his daughter-in-law to bring him something to eat, and the messenger sends him to the mill to inform his son about what happened. Panicked and frightened for her lover, Katerina pours into the mushrooms that the father-in-law so much loves, poison for rats. Having eaten dinner, Boris Timofeevich dies.

A few days have passed. Hypocritical Sergey complains to Catherine that her husband will soon arrive, and he does not want to hide from everyone and just be a secret lover. He intends to become her husband. Katerina consoles Sergei, and when he falls asleep, she sees the ghost of the deceased father-in-law, who curses her prodigal daughter-in-law. Frightened, Katerina wakes Sergei up, then hearing steps outside the door, hides him. Zinovy ​​Borisovich returned. Reproaching his wife for treason and the death of his father, he pounces on her with beatings. Hearing the screams, Sergei, coming out of his shelter, attacks on the husband of his mistress. As a result of the struggle, Zinovy ​​Borisovich was strangled, and his corpse was then hidden in a cellar.

The time has passed, but the feeling of guilt for the crimes committed is constantly torturing Katerina. Even on her wedding day with Sergey, she comes and stays around the cellar for a long time. This notes one drunken little man. When the newlyweds went to church, he hoping to find alcohol, breaks off the castle, climbs into the cellar and discovers the corpse of Zinoviy Borisovich there. Horrified by what he saw, the little man runs away.

At this time in the assembly hut the policemen languish from idleness. The quarterly complains that they did not send him an invitation to Katerina Izmailova’s wedding. The situation quickly changes ran into a dumbfounded peasant. He reports the corpse that he saw in the cellar.

In the garden near the house Izmailov passes wedding feast. Drunken guests glorify the bride and groom. Suddenly, Katerina notices that there is no castle in the cellar, which means that the body of her husband has been found. Reporting everything to Sergey, Katerina invites him to flee, but he is confused: it’s a pity to throw wealth. However, late, the police have arrived. Katerina stretches their hands to them, and Sergey is still trying to hide, but unsuccessfully.

The convicts' stage, in which Katerina and Sergey walked in shackles, stops at a halt on the bank of the river. Katerina begs the guard to allow her to come to Sergey, who is in another group, where there are only men. However, the former lover rudely shooes Katerina, accusing her of everything that happened, but after that he quietly sneaks up to Sonnetka, the prisoner who likes him. Pursuing her favors, since Sonette is not used to loving for free, Sergey is deceiving to beg for stockings from Katerina and gives them to his present sweetheart. The convicts mock mock Katerina, who saw Sergei take Sonnetka into the forest. The stage is about to set out again, and Katerina, distraught with grief, walks up to Sonetka standing on a cliff near the river and with her throws herself into the water.

Interesting Facts

• In the process of working on "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District" Shostakovich An idea arose to create not one opera, but a whole cycle, like that of Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung". The composer decided to write an opera trilogy about the position of the Russian woman at different times. The story about Katerina Izmailova would be the first part of this cycle. The second part should tell about the fate of the revolutionary woman, and the third about the contemporary woman, the hero of labor. However, Shostakovich’s dreams did not come true. "Lady Macbeth ..." by the will of fate was the last opera of the composer.
• The article, in which the work of Shostakovich was subjected to harsh criticism, was called "Muddle instead of music." There was no signature for the publication, but later it was possible to establish that its author was a journalist David Zaslavsky. As a result, this editorial not only condemned the work of the composer, but also served as a call to fight against innovation in art, primarily affecting the theater in the person of Vsevolod Meyerhold.

• After the opera "Katerina Izmailova" in the newspaper was called "anti-people", Shostakovich was ready for anything. His friends were arrested and exiled to the camps, and Dmitri Dmitrievich was constantly in fear that they would come for him, even went to bed in his clothes. However, fortunately for the composer, everything ended only by the fact that his works were removed from the repertoire plan of all theaters and orchestras.
• In Leningrad, Shostakovich’s opera went under the name stated by the author, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, however Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, who staged the work in Moscow, considered that the best title for the play would be “Katerina Izmaylova”. As a result of this double name of the opera in theaters, a humorous statement appeared: in Moscow, Katerina Izmaylova is playing, but Lady Macbeth is playing. About Leningrad - all the same, only with the names on the contrary.
• In 1935, after the premiere of "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" in the United States, the American newspaper New York Sun, noting in the opera pictorial naturalism and too vivid expression of feelings, called it "pornophony." It is good that in the Soviet Union in the work they did not hear such motives, but only confusion instead of music. It is also worth noting that Shostakovich in the second edition of the 1955 opera did not leave a trace of the former eroticism.
• Dmitri Shostakovich's opera "Katerina Izmailova" attracted the attention of not only theatrical figures, but also cinematographers. In 1966, director Mikhail Shapiro, based on the script of the author of the opera, made a wonderful film, in which the unsurpassed Galina Vishnevskaya played the main role. It was the first wide-format film with stereo sound. In addition, the Czech film director Peter Wagle made the first version of the film adaptation of Shostakovich’s opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” with the use of a phonogram made during the studio production of the work by M.L. Rostropovich in London in 1978. In the film, filmed with all frankness, the main role was played by Czech actress Marketa Hrubeshev, but voiced by Galina Vishnevskaya.

Popular numbers from the opera "Katerina Izmaylova"

Arioso of Katerina "I once saw out of the window"

Sergey's Arioso "Katerina Lvovna, Katya"

Arioso Katerina "In the forest, in the most often there is a lake"

The history of the creation of "Katerina Izmailova"

In 1926, a talented director Cheslav Sabinsky made the film "Katerina Izmaylova", which, after the release of cinema screens, fascinated a large number of viewers.

Soon the Leningrad publishing house published the story by Nikolai Leskov "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" with wonderful illustrations by the eminent painter Boris Kustodiev. All this attracted the attention of twenty-four Dmitri Shostakovich. Firstly, the composer was in close friendly relations with the famous artist and was very upset about his untimely departure from life, and secondly, Dmitry at that time began to enthuse the idea of ​​creating a new opera. After reading the story, the young man was struck by its dramatic content, exposing the wild morals of housebuilding: cruelty and mockery of a person. Shostakovich decided to take this particular plot as the basis for his new work, since in the era of Proletkulat, which ruled at that time, any artistic audacity was welcomed. The young composer could experiment both with the choice of the subject and the means for her image.

Having finally decided on the plot and outlined the construction of the opera, Dmitry again turned to playwright Alexander Preis for help in writing the libretto, with whom they worked on the Nose opera. Solving together a creative task, the composer and the writer made significant changes to the content of Leskov's story. For example, they caricaturally depicted the society surrounding the main characters, removed some minor characters, and turned the predatory image of the main character into a strong personality, crushed by a hopeless life and striving to escape from the "darkness". The fact that Shostakovich sympathized with Katerina is clearly visible from the work: her image is always accompanied by very beautiful music.

The composer began working on the work in the early winter of 1930, and he also finished it in early winter, but only in 1932. The premiere demonstration of the new brainchild of Shostakovich almost simultaneously took place in both capitals in early 1934. Leningraders saw the performance on the stage of the Maly Opera Theater on January 22 with the title Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Muscovites on the 24th of the same month in the Music Studio named after V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, but called Katerina Izmailova. Both productions, which differ significantly from each other not only in name, were a great success. Different interpretations of the same work provoked stormy disputes between stage performers and critics, but regardless of this, the opera was warmly received by the audience and in two years was shown about two hundred times. And everything could be in the stage destiny of "Katerina Izmailova" and it would be good as well, but the Bolshoi Theater Directorate wanted to stage this opera. The premiere performance took place at the end of December 1935, and on January 26 of the following year, Comrade Stalin himself honored the opera with his visit. However, by the fourth act, the government box was empty, and a day later, Pravda newspaper published the first separate article, followed by a number of publications in which the opera was heavily criticized, and the composer was ideologically whipped. As a result, a corresponding reaction followed: “Katerina Izmailova was banned and removed from the repertoire plans of all theaters in the country.

Twenty years passed, and Shostakovich again had to return to the work, which ended the adolescent period in his creative life. After the death of Stalin, in early 1955, the Directorate of the Leningrad Maly Opera Theater decided to resume the production of a banned opera and appealed to the author to this idea. Dmitry Dmitrievich gladly accepted this proposal, knowing in good time that, despite the thaw in the country, it would be very difficult. Already in mid-March, he submitted a new edition of the opera to the theater. In it, all the "sharp corners" were cut, for which the composer was subjected to "public scourging": the obscene lexicon was removed, the orchestration and vocal parts were corrected.

In addition, Shostakovich finally changed the name of the work, taking the Moscow version - "Katerina Izmaylova." However, despite the fact that significant changes were made to the opera, a specially created commission, the head of which Dmitry Kabalevsky was appointed, was not removed the ban on staging. It was only in 1963, when Shostakovich, who was tempered in constant struggle, experienced "carrots" and "carrots", joined the ranks of the CPSU and took the post of chairman of the Board of the RSFSR Composers Union, moved the company to death, the opera "Katerina Izmailova" in the second edition. returned to the scene. After the premiere, held at the Musical Theater. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, she again began to conquer the scenes of the world's best musical theaters.

Productions

After the successful premieres that took place in Russia in 1934, Shostakovich’s creation “Lady Macbeth ...”, accompanied by triumphant success, set off to march through Europe and America. Already in 1935, the opera was staged and appreciated in Sweden, the Czech Republic, England, Denmark and Switzerland, the USA and Argentina. The name of the young composer gained world fame. In the United States, Opera became interested in visiting the premiere shows, Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokovsky and Igor Stravinsky.

However, after a catastrophic performance at the Bolshoi Theater (1935) and critical publications in the Soviet press, interest in opera abroad naturally subsided. Subsequently, only five productions were noticeable: in Zagreb (1937), Bratislava (1938), Venice (1947), Poznan (1957) and Dusseldorf (1957).

The revival of the opera in 1963 and the presentation of it in the new version immediately caused great interest not only in the Soviet, but also in foreign theaters. Katerina Izmaylova appeared before the audience in Leningrad (1963; 1965; 1995), Riga (1963), Tartu (1966), Kazan (1965), Kiev (1965), Tallinn (1977), and Yekaterinburg (1995). At the Bolshoi Theater, Katerina Izmailova was staged in 1980, and besides this, the performance of 2016, timed to coincide with the 110th anniversary of the birth of Dmitry Shostakovich, was particularly remarkable. The opera, with the involvement of foreign vocalists Nadi Michael (Germany) and John Dashak (Great Britain), was worked on by director Rimas Tuminas and conductor Tugan Sokhiev.

Abroad, the second edition of Shostakovich's opera also attracted attention, and therefore "Katerina Izmailova was almost immediately put in London, San Francisco, Zagreb, Nice and Helsinki. In subsequent years, she was introduced to lovers of the opera of Budapest, Vienna, Florence, Belgrade, Leipzig, Sarajevo , Copenhagen, Berlin and Warsaw.

It should be noted that the original version of the opera is also not forgotten today, and on the contrary, it is of greater interest, especially the last twenty years: after all, what is always prohibited is curious and fashionable. The performances of "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District" in the original version were resumed in London, Spoleto, Osnabruck, Milan, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, St. Petersburg and Moscow.

"Katerina Izmailova"- This is an outstanding composer's opera. Dmitri Shostakovich, the interest in which at the present time is increasing. Striking a bright emotion, depth and penetration, she won the hearts of many listeners around the world and therefore always included in the repertoire of the best musical theaters.