Shostakovich operas in London: Gergiev conducts Mariinsky(July 2006) Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre (Kirov) visit London with a grand celebration of Shostakovich's music for the stage in honour of the centenary. The ten-day series, entitled Shostakovich on Stage, takes place at the London Coliseum (20-29 July) including three operas and two ballet programmes, and is presented by the Mariinsky Theatre Trust.
Visit the Mariinsky Friends site for full information, and the English National Opera site to book tickets. Dating from his years as an enfant terrible in his twenties, The Nose (20/21 July) is a brilliant version of the satirical Gogol short story. A prominent St Petersburg Major wakes up one morning to find his nose has disappeared from his face, and has assumed an independent identity. In one of his most outrageous Shostakovich charts the progress of owner and proboscis as The Nose rampages through the city, evading capture and causing chaos and consternation. The first UK staging of this new Mariinsky production is directed by Yuri Alexandrov. Shostakovich was a great lover of operetta and theatre music in a lighter vein, and his Moscow Cheryomushki (22 Jul) is a delightful antidote to the image of Shostakovich as a sombre symphonist. It tells the story of a group of ordinary citizens, outwitting a dodgy bureaucrat to take possession of their new homes in the desirable Moscow housing estate Cheryomushki. The work is presented in semi-staged form. The centrepiece of the festival is provided by Katerina Ismailova (23/24 July), the composer's revised version of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. It is the story of one woman's soul-destroying loneliness and how her violent sexual passion reacts with her fury at the weak, manipulative men who fence her in. The original version caused so much offence to Soviet Russia's cultural guardians that Shostakovich was forced to abandon the theatre for almost 30 years. Though the revised version was often belittled, with the passage of time we can now see how Katerina Ismailova demonstrates the vision and balance of a deeply mature artist - the two versions can happily coexist. The Mariinsky's production is staged by Irina Molostova. In addition to the operas, the Mariinsky also presents two ballet programmes: a new production of The Golden Age, and a triple bill including Leningrad Symphony. > News Search |
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