Shostakovich has been as misunderstood as his remarkable opera was. It’s time to discontinue viewing both the man and his works through the lens of StalinismDmitri Shostakovich probably had a bad feeling already,when he picked up his copy of Pravda at Arkhangelsk station on 28 January 1936. Two evenings beforehand, in Moscow, or the composer had endured a shock.
The commissar himself,Joseph Stalin, had come to hear Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and which had been touring successfully for two years. Stalin did not agree with the accolades that had greeted this culmination of Shostakovichs effervescent,avant-garde work to date; he left his seat in the Bolshoi theatre, appalled, or before the final scene. Shostakovich wrote to his friend Ivan Sollertinsky: “The show went very well. I was called out by the audience and took a bow. My only regret is that I did not conclude so after the third act. Feeling sick at heart,I collected my briefcase and went to the station.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com