Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk

Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is an opera more heard about than seen. The facts of its notoriety are well known. After opening in 1934 in Leningrad and Moscow, the opera catapulted the 29-year-old composer to superstardom. Within two years, it had been performed 83 times to sold-out houses in Leningrad, nearly 100 times in Moscow, and reached the stage in London, Stockholm, Zürich, Copenhagen, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, New York, and even Cleveland.Then on Jan. 26, 1936, Stalin showed up at the Bolshoi to see what the fuss was about -- and all hell broke loose. The Great Leader, entourage in tow, stormed out of his box before the show was over. Two days later an editorial on Pravda's front page condemned the opera and its composer. Lady Macbeth soon disappeared. Shostakovich, declared an Enemy of the People, feared for his life.After watching Mariss Jansons conduct Lady Macbeth with Eva-Maria Westbroek in the title role in this 2006 Amsterdam staging, the surprise is not that Lady Macbeth upset Stalin, who slaughtered millions on a whim but was a prude on matters sexual. The surprise is that Shostakovich wasn't marched out and executed on the spot -- which I don't doubt would have happened had Stalin witnessed this particular production.I've seen my two-Blu-ray set from start to finish three times, and I can hardly take in the daring performance Westbroek delivers. I believe there are times she forgets where she is, forgets who she is, so complete is her commitment to the role, so white-hot is her involvement in realizing the multilayered character of Shostakovich's Katerina Ismailova.Katerina is a bored, rich housewife stuck in a provincial backwater. Her impotent husband has not been able to consummate their marriage, and while he is away on business, she takes as her lover a wandering rake named Sergey who has just begun working in the family factory, then murders the abusive father-in-law who catches her with Sergey. When her husband returns, she and Sergey murder him, then try to flee with the family's fortune before they are arrested and sent to Siberia.Somehow, Westbroek overcomes our revulsion at Katerina's crimes and, without absolving her of guilt, evokes pathos for her suffering, her isolation, her own betrayal by Sergey with another female prisoner. Katerina wants Life. She wants to be kissed hard, to taste blood, to know what is it to feel truly alive. Actualizing Katerina on stage as this true-to-life woman is no small achievement. Westbroek does it.Describing the virtues of this overwhelming production could grow to Dostoyevskyian proportions. Christopher Ventris polishes his muscular portrayal of Sergey in Barcelona's 2002 Lady Macbeth  Shostakovich - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk / Secunde, Ventris, Kotcherga, Vas, Clark, Nesterenko, Capelle, Anissimov, Barcelona Opera . The whole supporting cast deserves praise, including Alexandre Kravets, who enacts Shostakovich's version of the drunken porter who gets up in the night to relieve himself in Shakespeare's Macbeth. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra plays as only this world-class orchestra can play. On the podium, Mariss Jansons is so absorbed that the sweat is dripping off his chin within 15 minutes. The camera work, directed by Thomas Grimm, is dazzlingly right.That camera work is notably effective when Katerina and her Seryózha first make love, as runaway music throbs from the orchestra and pulsating strobe lights heighten the entire episode, right down to its descending trombone glissando denouement.Which brings up a major caution. On the back cover is printed a warning: "This production contains stroboscopic light effects, nudity and scenes of a sexual nature." To which might have been added: graphic violence and bloodshed. If such elements offend you, avoid this.Shostakovich's orchestration is modern but accessible. Some people shy away from Russian opera because they say the language doesn't sound musical, but Westbroek does indeed sing. Beautifully. She shreds the heartstrings. Listen to her moan, "Seryózha, Seryózha," toward the final moments of the opera, and you'll understand as you never could otherwise the mournful motif that rises in the fourth movement of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8, composed 24 years after Lady Macbeth was crushed.The strongest recommendation for this Lady Macbeth perhaps comes, by accident rather than design, from Westbroek herself. At the end, when the curtain rises to reveal her standing alone to receive the ovation she is due, she puts her hands on her head with a look of astonishment on her face, as though she herself cannot believe what she has done. She has laid it on the line, body and soul, heart and voice, given every ounce of her being to this performance. She barely holds back the tears.It's a feat Westbroek might not be able ever to duplicate. She doesn't have to. Thanks to Opus Arte's stunning Blu-ray, the whole world can hear it and see it.

One has to admire the courage of Shostakovich ( or wonder at his folly ) for creating such a damning indictment of Stalin's police state just as the purges were reaching their climax. This lends a historical dimension to what is without doubt one of the richest operas in the literary and musical domains in the entire repertoire, modern or ancient. Other reviewers have done justice to the plot and the large cast of ( mostly ) sleazy characters around whom it is built to display the greed, envy and lust that pervade the core of the human spirit. It is a bleak commentary on humanity, as deserved in our day as in the time of the Great Dictator, and no one emerges with their reputation untarnished ( that is, if they are still alive at the end ), yet the impact upon the receptive listener and viewer is of exhiliration rather than despair. This excitement is largely the product of the magnificent orchestral work performed by Jansons and the Concertgebouw, backed up by the powerful chorus and the fine camera work that captures these extended moments in all their ugly majesty. Think of Francis Bacon's geatest canvasses and you will understand where I am coming from. Director Martin Kusej has cleverly updated the decor to our own times, and set the action in a series of spare cubes and rectangles that pare down the action to its essentials, and except for the dying moments, lends piercing clarity to the compex and busy activity on stage. This comment leads, in fact, to the finale itself, for Kusej has been accused of changing the ending. I do not see it that way. Katrina's preceding soliloquy expresses her wish for death by drowning, and nothing that follows rules out the fulfillment of that wish. Nor does the libretto. It seems that Kusej is trying to convey the image of rising water as the stage clears to reveal the dead, so that the drowning is suggested surrealistically as it has to be, given the fact that the constraints of this set allow no room for the river that one can imagine borders their temporary stopping place. It is how Salvador Dali might have done it if he had landed the job of building the sets.Back to the music. I consider this the finest orchestral writing that the composer ever produced, his major symphonies notwithstanding. No one who is timid about modern opera need be terrified by anything in this work. They will not find much to hum about, but the intense congruity of words with music pushes the plot forward and exposes the characters down to their very skeletons. Nothing so revealing is to be found in the superficially more entertaining pre- 20th Century operas, although late Wagner and Verdi come close. Its model is Berg's Wozzeck, that other towering musical drama of our time (no, I am not forgetting Peter Grimes, number 3 on my list ). The singing and acting are hardly distinguishable and could not have been better overall. Ventris' sexy performance has elicited some harsh words, but for me he gives a convincing interpretation of the role: after all, he is not singing Parsifal here as he has done with great distinction elsewhere. Westerbroek, as all seem to agree, dominates the cast. She compellingly projects the unsavoury appetites of the heroine, as well as the remorse that they bring. Visually and vocally she has an Olympian quality that doubtless accounts for her success in Wagnerian roles. Five cheers and five stars for a remarkable DVD, that stimulates, satisfies, and provokes in equal measures.

A brilliant and fearless staging of a great opera.

but, sometimes it was tough to watch for a variety of reasons: violence on one extreme and drag on the other. Not a happy opera. Committed performance by Westbroek.

One of my problems with this production is the revisionist ending.Now that there are no longer satellite countries, I guess since this is updated to modern times, the treck to Siberia in the last scene would be unbelievable but the ending is jarring for all the wrong reasons.The staging is effective but odd. The first half taking place within a glass enclosed box obviously representing Katerina's entrapment as the bride of a impotent man. Wooden walls line the back of the stage and the wings. The production is stark. A huge wow for Eva-Marie Westbroek as Katerina. She has a voice similar to the young Eva Marton, which is saying a lot. It's a huge sound and beautiful too. Ventris repeats his Sergei here. His voice is growing darker but he's looking bloated and fat. What is a sexy and dangerous looking performance in the other DVD version, becomes seedy here.The orchestra and chorus dominate this performance. I wanted to love this, the opera is one of my favorites, but it's too odd and gimickey for my tastes.There's also a tracking problem on the second DVD. It's not my player because this does not happen with the other DVDs that were apart of my order.

This was recommended to me by a friend - who is a professional music critic - after I had attended a performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No 4, which had made a great impression on me. I understand the reason behind the recommendation, the two works are closely linked. Some of the most extraordinary music of the 20th century. And this performance of Lady Macbeth is of the highest quality. Eva-Maria Westbroek gives a superlative performance, and Jansons with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra are on top form. A superb disc

I was totally enraptured by this very powerful performance of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by the Dutch opera and the Royal Concertgebouw orchestra under Mariss Jansons. Lady Macbeth is the story of a provincial merchant's wife who takes a lover and is an accomplice in the murder of her husband. The plot might have been just another “bourgeois” melodrama, but the power of the opera resides in its extreme sensuality and explicit sexuality. All the singers are excellent but Eva-Maria Westbroek and Carole Wilson deserve to be distinguished for their extraordinary acting and singing interpretations. The exacerbation of passions and desire are perfectly expressed by Shostakovich’s music and the powerful interpretation of the Royal Concertgebouw under Mariss Jansons. The decors are minimalist but, for this opera, they do not distract from the music and the overwhelming power of the passions.When it was performed in Moscow, Lady Macbeth displeased Stalin and Zhdanov who walked out during the intermission. The work triggered a real storm in the Soviet intelligentsia and Shostakovich, who was violently criticized by Pravda, never wrote another opera. Despite frequent criticisms from Zhdanov, Shostakovich kept serving his country well by composing powerful music. Listening to Lady Macbeth, one can only regret that Shostakovich left only one opera. But what a powerful opera it is!

Eva-Maria Westbrook's portrayal of Katerina in this excellent production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Dmitri Shostakovitch, is nothing short of brilliant. She holds the viewer enthralled as she skilfully develops every nuance of Katerina's struggle to survive in the face of a plethora of abuse and misuse in the face of incompetent, lustful, self-centred and brutal male misbehaviour aided and abetted by a corrupt police force. Small wonder this work did not find favour with Joseph Stalin, who banned it. Presumably, Shostakovich had the Shakespearian version of Lady Macbeth in mind when composing this work. In other words, a lady who would stop at nothing, including murder, to achieve her ends. Unfortunately, great playwright that he was, Shakespeare was no historian and his play about Macbeth unfairly denigrates one of Scotland's greatest kings inspired by his loyal, good wife Gruoch. But Shostakovitch didn't need to know this and, in this great work, he illustrates how selfish, lustful and cruel men bring murder upon themselves by their bad behaviour and incompetence. Katrina is in the way of being a trapped mouse driven to lioness style anger at her selfish treatment and emotional neglect. Sadly, she ends up on her way to imprisonment in Siberia along with the selfish lout she loved and his new found floozy.There are no readily discernible below par performances in this presentation, which succeeds admirably in illustrating how selfish behaviour and corrupt government can drive essentially good people into excessive behaviour in desperate attempts to break free from oppression. It also shows how they can turn on each other as surrogates for their real oppressors. One of the most noticeable factors about this Shostakovitch masterpiece is the way it brings out the crude approach of men towards women who are there just to be used, stripped and abused willy nilly as is disturbingly illustrated in one disturbing scene.Although in no way elaborate, the simple staging is cleverly designed to bring out the sense of people being trapped by insensitive and dictatorial, male dominated rule. For instance, the corrupt police are portrayed as 'dancing about' on a flat roof above the rest of the stage, illustrating their contempt for the people they are supposed to protect. We have here an excellent example of how 'hint at' is often more effective than over-elaboration and can give that sense of 'being there' as it does in this production. Conducting and orchestration are top quality and mercifully devoid of any irritating over-enthusiasms, and I couldn't find any problems with either the playing or sound quality of this two disc set, which also includes a helpful cast gallery documentary on disc one.Shostakovich himself is on record as saying that he sympathises with Katerina who is the victim of 'despotic Russian merchants', as he puts it. However, one cannot help but feel that such merchants are not the only despots satirised in this work, which is a truth that Stalin realised only too well. I think Shostakovich wants us to empathise with Katerina, who is much more like Gruoch than she is like the historically inaccurate Shakespearian version of Lady Macbeth. His Lady Macbeth in his great play is a ruthless schemer, whereas Katerina is a victim of circumstance driven to desperation by selfish, incompetent and cruel men. I think Shostakovich wants us to like her, love her and feel for her in her desperation as she seeks to break free from every kind of mistreatment at the hands of men and this great production succeeds admirably in bringing all of this out to a very high standard of operatic excellence.

Non, vous n'avez pas mal lu! C'est bien ce dont fut accusé Dimitri Chostakovitch dans les années 30, et ce aussi bien dans l'URSS du camarade Staline que dans les journaux américains - il reste qu'en URSS, cette oeuvre fut accusée d'autres maux, évidemment, comme celui d'être bourgeoisement formaliste, ce qui conduisit Chostakovitch à faire beaucoup plus attention par la suite, et à ne pas renouveler de tels excès. Cet opéra, un des plus grands du 20ème siècle, est il est vrai violemment expressif, jusques et y compris dans la transcription musicale fort enlevée d'une scène d'amour, débandaison aux cuivres comprise! Cette expressivité est à vrai dire à multiples facettes, et l'oeuvre est toute en ruptures de tons et pourtant très unitaire.Katerina Ismailova, Madame Bovary mal mariée que l'ennui taraude devient (plus ou moins) Lady Macbeth après qu'elle s'est débarrassée avec l'aide de son tout nouvel amant de son beau-père envahissant, qui règle (toutes!) les affaires de la maisonnée en l'absence de son fils. Voilà pour la trame. Très vite, de l'humour, de l'ironie, voire du sarcasme s'entendent dans la musique de Chostakovitch autant que dans les dialogues du livret, et l'aspect satirique de l'opéra, revendiqué par le compositeur lui-même, ne peut échapper à personne. Par exemple, un choeur à la russe se retrouve à chanter un hymne au maître, ce pastiche permettant au compositeur de jouer sur deux tableaux (sérieux et ironie), en parodiant les appels du peuple à ses maîtres (en particulier le tsar) dans les opéras russes du 19ème. Que ce soit dans de tels passages ou dans les airs de Katerina, bien différents et dépourvus d'ironie, l'orchestration regorge de beautés et de fulgurances, et tandis que l'opéra se dirige vers son issue tragique, il apparaît évident que cette Lady Macbeth est plus victime de cette société patriarcale figée et vulgaire que bourreau.Dans la production d'Amsterdam (2006, reprise à l'opéra Bastille en 2009) captée pour ce dvd, cet aspect des choses est particulièrement mis en valeur, la "pornophonie" étant soulignée par la mise en scène. Pas toujours subtile mais jamais vaine, elle a au moins le mérite de solliciter le texte et la musique pour justifier ses outrances. A vrai dire, cette mise en scène, vue à Bastille, m'a conquis sans trop de réserves alors même que le début me faisait craindre le pire (prison de plexiglas de Katerina dans une esthétique de bunker qui caractérise beaucoup de productions contemporaines; littéralisation à outrance de certaines scènes...). Martin Kusej a eu l'intelligence de nourrir l'expressivité de sa mise en scène en écoutant que ce que la musique autant que les mots expriment, et tout au moins n'y a-t-il pas de contresens, ce qui n'est pas toujours le cas sur les scènes d'opéra. Il reste que la fantastique mise en scène d'André Engel, il y a une quinzaine d'années à Bastille, aurait sans doute plus méritée d'être immortalisée.Pour jouer et chanter l'éveil à la sensualité et la détresse de Katerina, Eva-Maria Westbroek est une interprète tout simplement idéale. Dotée d'une voix exceptionnelle, elle joue son rôle à la perfection, et avoir eu le privilège de la voir trois fois à Bastille en deux ans (dans Tannhaüser, où elle était tout aussi sublime, par exemple) ne doit pas empêcher de souhaiter de la revoir et surtout de la réentendre très bientôt. Les autres tiennent tous bien leur partie, surtout Vladimir Vaneev, aussi drôle que repoussant en vieux tyran lubrique. La petite déception sur ce dvd provient de la direction de Mariss Jansons, que je trouve souvent triviale et marquant un peu trop ses effets. Il faut dire que je ne peux que comparer avec la direction, à Bastille, de Harmut Haenchen, parfaitement équilibrée jusque dans les plus grandes dissonances ou les passages de musique de foire: un modèle de direction, que je peine à retrouver ici. Toutefois, on ne peut que recommander ce dvd, écho d'un spectacle important dans la vie d'une oeuvre désormais mieux connue et qui devrait gagner à être plus connue encore.On ne peut que vous conseiller, si vous avez l'équipement et les moyens, de vous procurer  le Blu-ray . Comme il se doit, la définition du son et de l'image y sont toutes deux sensiblement améliorées. Seul hic: deux disques sont utilisés alors que si l'on a bien compris les capacités de stockage du blu-ray sont bien supérieures.  L'édition dvd  est tout à fait honnête si vous ne pouvez pas lire les blu-ray.NB Si l'on pense que l'on sera irrité, voire plus, par la mise en scène ici décrite, on peut se porter sur la version captée à Florence en 2008, dirigée par James Conlon et mise en scène de facon plus traditionnelle par Lev Dodine :  Lady Macbeth du District de Mtsenk  (dvd) /  Lady Macbeth Du District De Mtsenk  (Blu-ray). Le seul hic étant que l'icarnation vocale et scénique de Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet n'est franchement pas à la hauteur de celle d'Eva Maria Westbroek. Si l'on souhaite découvrir l'opéra, cette production peut constituer une bonne solution, mais si on l'apprécie il vaudrait mieux ne pas s'en tenir là.Pour une version en CD, on peut s'intéresser à la captation d'un spectacle du Wiener Staatsoper (2009), au plateau hétérogène mais avec une Katerina de valeur (même si avec quelques limites vocales) en la personne d'Angela Denoke, et surtout avec un orchestre superbe sous la direction ultra-compétente d'Ingo Metzmacher :  Lady Macbeth Von Mzensk  ou  Lady Macbeth Von Mzensk . le Blu-rayL'édition dvdLady Macbeth du District de MtsenkLady Macbeth Du District De MtsenkLady Macbeth Von MzenskLady Macbeth Von Mzensk

This blu ray disc represents a powerful performance of a very disturbing opera, subjecting Russian society to a devastating critical analysis, carried out in words and music.