(c) Opera National de Paris Lady Macbeth de Mzensk: Paris Opera
Paris, Opéra Bastille — Main Auditorium
About the Event
Don't miss the opportunity to hear an extraordinary cast unter the baton of Ingo Metzmacher. Stage director Krzysztof Warlikowski liberates all the subversive power of this scorching and scandalous work, which marked the early years of the Opéra Bastille.
Like a Russian Madame Bovary, Katerina is profoundly bored in the company of her husband. The arrival of a new employee, Sergei, leads her into adultery and then crime, making her more akin to Lady Macbeth. But unlike Shakespeare’s character, Katerina acts not out of a thirst for power but to satisfy urges stifled by a sordid environment.
Premiered in 1934 in Leningrad when Dmitri Shostakovich was only 28 years old, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was a triumph that nevertheless sealed the composer’s fate. Stalin deemed the opera scandalous and incompatible with “socialist realism”. The composer was threatened with deportation and the work banned for more than 25 years before resurfacing in a diluted version.
Performed in its original version, Shostakovich’s powerful and tense score is reinforced by Krzysztof Warlikowski’s staging. By placing the characters in a slaughterhouse, he restores this 20th century masterpiece’s unflinching brutality.
Sung in Russian with surtitles in English and French.
Cast / Production
Creative team
Dmitri Chostakovitch
Music (1906‑1975)
Alexander Preis, Dmitri Chostakovitch
Libretto
Ingo Metzmacher
Conductor
Ching‐Lien Wu
Chorus master
Krzysztof Warlikowski
Director
Małgorzata Szczęśniak
Set design and costume design
Felice Ross
Lighting design
Denis Guéguin
Video
Claude Bardouil
Choreography
Christian Longchamp
Dramaturgy
Cast
Aušrinė Stundytė
Katerina Lvovna Ismailova
Pavel Černoch
Sergueï
Dmitry Ulyanov
Boris Timofeevich Ismailov
Oleksiy Palchykov
Zinovy Borisovich Ismailov
Ekaterina Sannikova
Aksinia
Marcel Beekman
Seedy Lout
Victoria Karkacheva
Sonietka
Michael Colvin
Teacher
Margarita Polonskaya
Female Convict
Dmitry Belosselskiy
Police Sergeant, Old Convict
Vartan Gabrielian
An officer
The Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Address
Opéra Bastille, Place de la Bastille, Paris, France — Google Maps
