Lady Macbeth von Mzensk

LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK

Opera by Dmitri Shostakovich
Libretto by Alexander G. Preis and by the composer
Based on the story of the same name by Nikolai S. Leskov
In German with German surtitles

Katerina Ismailova is a young, unhappily married and deeply lonely woman in the Russian provinces. Her rich husband Zinovi is incapable of love and is usually traveling anyway, while her tyrannical father-in-law Boris makes her life a living hell. She lives in a world full of constraints and cruelty. A way out seems to open up when she meets the worker Sergei and falls into an affair with him. However, this escape from her despotic and cruel bourgeoisie claims victims, beginning with the murder of her father-in-law and husband and ending with deportation and death.

Katerina's struggle for a happier life includes the desire for sexual fulfillment - the drastic depiction of this moment led to the opera being banned for many years in the Soviet Union. How far can a person go to free themselves from unworthy circumstances? A woman becomes a murderer and yet she is the object of sympathy, at least on the part of the composer, who masterfully explores all emotional levels in his score and allows the grotesque and satirical to have their say alongside tragic violence.