Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Synopsis

Of Shostakovich’s initial undertaking – a trilogy on the tragic destinies of Russian women through the ages – only one opera was ever written: the hard-hitting Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Although one of the mainsprings of the work, the Shakespearean parallel is here bitterly ironic: unlike Lady Macbeth, Katerina Ismaïlova who, in the remote reaches of rural 19th century Russia, falls in love with one of her husband’s employees and is finally forced to commit suicide, is less a manipulator than a victim of a violent and patriarchal society. Krzysztof Warlikowski liberates all the subversive power of this scorching and scandalous work, which marked the early years of the Opéra Bastille.

Cast

• Aušrinė Stundytė

  Katerina Lvovna Ismailova

• 

  Pavel Cernoch

  Serguei

• Dmitry Ulyanov

  Boris Timofeevich Ismailov

• Sofija Petrovic

  Aksinya

• 

  John Daszak

  Zinovy Borisovich Ismailov

• Krzysztof Baczyk

  A priest