DSCH

In the organizer's words:

Shostakovich: artist and regime

The Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) is a prime example of state despotism and repression in the arts. Long internationally famous, he fell out of favor for his opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk", was labeled "formalism" and banned from working and performing. The composer was expecting to be arrested and deported, but Stalin unexpectedly pardoned him. A second creative period began for Shostakovich, in which he officially set himself up as a state artist. His musical language, however, transcended all ideologies.

The 50th anniversary of Shostakovich's death is the occasion for this scenic-musical project, which uses the composer's words and music to trace a picture of the creative artist and the possibilities of artistic freedom in a dictatorship.