Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975):
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| Katerina Ismailova | GALINA VISHNEVSKAYA |
| Sergey | NICOLAI GEDDA |
| Boris Ismailov | DIMITER PETKOV |
| Zinoviy Ismailov | WERNER KRENN |
| Shabby peasant | ROBERT TEAR |
| Aksinya | TARU VALJAKKA |
| Sonyetka | BIRGIT FINNILÄ |
| Sergeant | AAGE HAUGLAND |
| Teacher | MARTYN HILL |
| Priest/Pope/Le prêtre | LEONARD MRÓZ |
| Old convict | ALEXANDER MALTA |
| Mill-hand & Officer | LESLIE FYSON |
| Porter | STEVEN EMMERSON |
| Steward | JOHN NOBLE |
| Coachman & First foreman | COLIN APPLETON |
| Second foreman | ALAN BYERS |
| Third foreman | JAMES LEWINGTON |
| Policeman | OLIVER BROOME |
| Drunken guest | EDGAR FLEET |
| Sentry | DAVID BEAVAN |
| Woman convict | LYNDA RICHARDSON |
Introduction
The great Russian singing actress of her generation, Galina Vishnevskaya, portrays the murderous Katerina Ismailova in Shostakovich�s controversial work. Nicolai Gedda is her womanising lover, Sergei, while Mstislav Rostropovich conducts the searing score.
Synopsis
Famously damned by Stalin’s apparatchiks two years after its 1934 premiere in Leningrad, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is based on a novel by the 19th century writer Nikolai Leskov. While often lurid and violent – with music to match -- there are moments of stark, penetrating simplicity, full-blown lyricism, biting satire and overt farce.
Katerina Ismailova is unhappily married to Zinovy, a provincial merchant. While her husband is away on business she starts a brutally passionate affair with Sergei, a macho labourer. When her bullying and lecherous father-in-law spots Sergei climbing out of Katerina’s window, he captures him, flogs him, and then demands dinner. Katerina offers him poisoned mushrooms. As he is dying, he denounces Katerina to the priest, but she simply explains that people often die after eating mushrooms. When Zinovy returns and becomes suspicious that Katerina is being unfaithful, she and Sergey strangle him and bury him in the cellar. By Act III, Katerina and Sergei are celebrating their wedding, but a peasant discovers Zinovy’s corpse in the cellar and the couple are arrested. As they march to imprisonment in Siberia, Sergei takes up with another woman, Sonyetka. By the side of a river, Katerina attacks Sonyetka. Both women fall into the rushing waters and are drowned.
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Compact Disc 1 77.50 ACT ONE Scene Two Scene Three ACT TWO
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Compact Disc 2 77.03 Scene Five ACT THREE Scene Seven Scene Eight |
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