Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Music: Dmitri Shostakovich

Libretto: Alexander Preis and the composer, inspired by and named after Nikolai Leskov’s story.

Though it was acclaimed at the time of its creation, Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth was condemned in the Soviet Union in 1936, 2 years after the first performance, and banned for almost thirty years. It tells the story of the unhappy Katerina who is driven to murder so she can pursue her romance with Sergei, one of her husband’s workers.

In 1998, Florence’s Maggio Musicale (one of Europe’s most prestigious Summer Music Festivals, and the eldest along with Salzburg, Bayreuth and Glyndebourne) offered a remarkably powerful production of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, directed by Lev Dodin with sets and costumes by David Borovsky. This work was acclaimed by the public and won the Abbiati Prize for best operatic show of the year, the most prestigious Italian music award given by the Italian Association of Music Critics.

Ten years later, we have the great privilege to enjoy this production conducted by Maestro James Conlon.

Maestro Conlon, one of the world’s leading conductors, is music director of the Los Angeles Opera, music director of the Cincinnati May Festival, and in residency at the Juilliard School, working with the school’s young artists.