Word: shostakovich
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...vision and his mastery of the clean, clear voice in which he speaks better than any of his other compositions. With it Britten has emerged as England's greatest composer since Henry Purcell (16597-95) and, among this generation's composers, the only active peer of Dmitry Shostakovich...
...doubts have been dispelled. Last January the new opera got an enthusiastic reception in Moscow. Last week, with the new title of Katerina Ismailova, it had its Western debut at London's Covent Garden. To the delight of an audience that would not stop cheering until the shy Shostakovich had come onstage to accept a laurel wreath, every change turned out to be strictly the work of a matured and masterly composer...
Absurdity & Despair. The bleak, mocking portrayal of 19th century Russian life that Shostakovich chose for his libretto survives from the original version. A gay and clever girl marries into a loveless, thankless life among crude and cruel merchants. A love affair blossoms with one of her husband's workmen, and, bewitched by the promise of a new life, she kills both husband and father-in-law. Just as she and her lover take happy possession of the Mtsensk manor house, the crimes are discovered; on her way to Siberia in a column of convicts, she is taunted...
...Shostakovich explores every twist in the tale with a lively assortment of musical styles, and the music sustains the entire drama. The heroine, who despite her crimes is meant to be "a ray of light in the kingdom of darkness," is described in lyrical and eloquent themes, while an array of jarring, brassy polkas, gallops and mazurkas evoke the absurdity that surrounds her. In the revision, Shostakovich has tightened and refined both music and libretto, producing a work more polished and subdued -and considerably more singable...
Drabness & Squalor. Shostakovich pronounced himself pleased with the London production, which had an English libretto written last summer by Conductor Edward Downes. He sat by Downes's side through days of rehearsal, apparently bent on tempering every hint of crudity. "He has a puritanical obsession about showing sexualism onstage," said Downes. "Anything that was the least bit suggestive he jumped on immediately...