Speranza
Shostakovich, Dmitri: The Nose op. 15 (1927-28) 103'
A satirical opera in
three acts
Music Text
Libretto by Yevgeni Zamyatin, Georgi Ionin,
Alexander Preis and the composer, based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol/
82 singing/speaking parts which can be doubled by up to 14
solo singers; SATB chorus
1(=picc).1(=corA).1(=Ebcl,bcl).1(=dbn)-1.1(=cornet).1(=btrbn).0-perc:tgl/tamb/cast/SD/tom-t/rattle/
cyms/BD/gong/whistle/t.bells/glsp/xyl/flexatone-2harps-small and alto
domras-2balalaikas-pft-strings(reduced section with five-string double basses
specified)
World premiere incomplete
6/16/1929
Malyi Opera
Theatre, Leningrad
Malyi Opera
World stage
premiere
1/18/1930
Academy of Arts, Leningrad
Nikolai Smolich, director
/ Small Opera Theatre of the Academy of Arts, Leningrad / Samuil
Samosud
Repertoire Note
A satirical opera in three acts.
Libretto by Yevgeni Zamyatin, Georgi Ionin, Aleksandr Preis, and the composer,
based on the short story ‘The Nose’ by Nikolai Gogol.
‘The Nose’ is one
of the young Shostakovich’s greatest masterpieces, an electrifying tour de force
of vocal acrobatics, wild instrumental colours and theatrical absurdity, all
shot through with a blistering mixture of laughter and rage. In his first
dramatic work the composer immediately showed himself to be a master of musical
drama, as well as a born avant-garde experimenter, equally at home with the
theatrical modernism of his mentor, the great theatre-director Vsevolod
Meyerhold, and the musical modernism of Alban Berg (Berg’s ‘Wozzeck’ had made a
tremendous impression on Shostakovich when it was staged in Leningrad).
The plot is based on the one of the most famous stories in Russian
literature. A pompous government official, Kovalyov, wakes up one day to find
that his nose has taken on a life of its own and gone for a walk around the city
of St.Petersburg. In a sequence of scenes that follow one another with cinematic
swiftness, we follow Kovalyov’s increasingly ridiculous attempts to chase after
his nose, recapture it and stick it back on his face. On the way we encounter
singing policemen, a drunken barber, an early 19th century newspaper office, a
cathedral choir and the Persian Ambassador. The result, in Shostakovich’s
ruthlessly irreverent hands, is like an operatic version of Charlie Chaplin or
Monty Python.
Although ‘The Nose’ has been revived with enormous success
from time to time, its performances have never been as frequent as this
brilliant work deserves. This is a pity, for despite its magnificently absurd
subject and virtuosic music, ‘The Nose’ is a perfectly practical work and
provides a hugely entertaining evening in the theatre.
Note by Gerard
McBurney.
Recommended Recording
Edvard Akimov, Valery Belykh, Nina
Sasulova, Boris Tarkhov, Boris Druzhinin, Aleksandr Lomonosov, Igor Paramonov,
Valery Solovyanov, Lyudmila Sokolenko, Ashot Sarkisov, Alexander Braim, Lyudmila
Sapegina, Lyudmila Ukolova, Moscow Chamber Theatre Chorus, Moscow Chamber
Theatre Orchestra, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
Melodiya 74321603192
Click
here to purchase this CD set from Amazon
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
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