Najmiddin Mavlyanov

On the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, La Scala opens the Season with his masterpiece Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, based on the novella by Nikolai Leskov. After its premiere in St. Petersburg, the opera – which was intended to be the first part of a trilogy on women’s condition in Russia – enjoyed great success at home and abroad. Stalin attended a performance in Moscow in 1936; two days later, the famous denunciation titled “Chaos Instead of Music” appeared in Pravda, through which the regime blacklisted the opera and its composer. Years later, Shostakovich prepared a new version that was staged in Moscow in 1963 under the title Katerina Izmailova, after Superintendent Ghiringhelli had unsuccessfully tried to secure its premiere for La Scala. Today, the theatre presents the original 1934 version, conducted by M° Chailly and the debut of director Barkhatov.

A furious sorceress seeks revenge after her husband takes the children, leaves the country and finds himself a younger wife.

Enamoured with an unknown lady, a young soldier discovers that her grandmother holds a secret to win at cards. Although his beloved requites his love, happiness slips out of reach when his obsession with the powerful secret drives him to madness. Set in imperial Russia, Tchaikovsky’s late brooding thriller about a fanatic gambler is a tour de force of stirring melancholy, consuming passion and grand sweeping orchestration. If the opera saw the light of day thanks to his brother, the librettist Modest Tchaikovsky, The Queen of Spades soon became Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky’s personal obsession: composed in only 44 days, he considered it a masterpiece.

When a power vacuum opens up in Tsarist Russia, a ruthlessly ambitious prince conspires with the Streltsy militia and the schismatic Old Believers to usurp the throne. Based on real life events surrounding the Moscow Uprising of 1682, Mussorgsky’s political thriller is a powerful portrayal of a country in crisis. This 2015 production by Moscow State Stanislavsky Music Theatre uses Shostakovich's orchestration with a finale by Vladimir Kobekin.