Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk tickets

We are seeking production supporters to bring Shostakovich’s masterpiece, Lady Macbeth of Mstensk, back to the London Coliseum stage.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is Shostakovich’s masterpiece and one of the most powerful and dramatically effective operas of the 20th century.

Based on Nikolai Leskov's 1865 novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the story follows the downfall of Katerina, a lonely provincial merchant’s wife who is unhappily married to Zinovy and seeks solace and excitement in an extra-marital affair with workman Sergei.

Shostakovich chose to interpret the novel’s events from a modern point of view, presenting the compelling protagonist Katerina as a victim of her circumstances, whose extreme and murderous behaviour is explained by the domestic and social constraints that entrap her. Despite trying to take control, she is ultimately destroyed by the man she loves and her own fate.

The opera marked a pivotal change in Shostakovich’s compositional style and censorship in Russian music.  The production was a huge success when it premiered in 1934 in Leningrad and Moscow and was performed nearly 200 times across the Soviet Union and abroad. In 1936 Stalin attended a performance and was angered by the modernist music and explicit portrayal of violence and sex. It was subsequently banned in the Soviet Union for 30 years and Shostakovich faced a lifelong struggle to maintain his artistic integrity in the face of totalitarian oppression.

The opera is a powerful work of raw intensity. Much of its strength comes from its extraordinary orchestral score, employing a fusion of colours and themes to illustrate the weaknesses of his characters, driving rhythms, wild dissonances and biting parody. It is profoundly moving, with a final scene that encapsulates centuries of Russian suffering and deprivation.