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Dmitri Shostakovich
Operas[show] The Nose (1928) Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District (1932) Moscow, Cheryomushki (1958) Katerina Ismailova (1963) Orango (unfinished, premiered 2011)
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The Nose (Russian: Нос, 'Nos'^{[a 1]}) is a satirical opera composed by Dmitri Shostakovich. The libretto by Shostakovich, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ionin, and Alexander Preis is based on the story The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. The plot concerns a St. Petersburg official whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of its own.
The opera, written between 1927 and 1928, uses a montage of different styles, including folk music, popular song and atonality. The apparent chaos is given structure by formal musical devices such as canons and quartets, a device taken from Alban Berg's Wozzeck.
According to the British composer Gerard McBurney writing for Boosey & Hawkes "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... The result, in Shostakovich’s ruthlessly irreverent hands, is like an operatic version of Charlie Chaplin or Monty Python... despite its magnificently absurd subject and virtuosic music, The Nose is a perfectly practical work and provides a hugely entertaining evening in the theatre."^[1]

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Performance history
• 2 Instrumentation
• 3 Synopsis
  • 3.1 Act 1
  • 3.2 Act 2
  • 3.3 Act 3
  • 3.4 Epilogue
• 4 Recordings
  • 4.1 Video
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Performance history[edit]

In June 1929, The Nose was given a concert performance, against Shostakovich's own wishes: "The Nose loses all meaning if it is seen just as a musical composition. For the music springs only from the action...It is clear to me that a concert performance of The Nose will destroy it."^[2] Indeed, the concert performance caused bewilderment, and was ferociously attacked by the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM).^[2] Its stage premiere, conducted by Samuil Samosud, took place at the Maly Operny Theatre in Leningrad on 18 January 1930.^[3] It opened to generally poor reviews and widespread incomprehension amongst musicians.^[4] Even so, the conductor Nikolai Malko, who had taught Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory and conducted the premiere of his pupil's First Symphony, reckoned the opera a "tremendous success"; indeed it was given 16 performances with two alternating casts over six months.^[2]
The opera was not performed again in the Soviet Union until 1974, when it was revived by Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Boris Pokrovsky. Interviewed for a 2008 documentary, Rozhdestvensky related that he had found an old copy of The Nose in the Bolshoi Theatre in 1974, supposedly the last copy in the Soviet Union. The composer attended the rehearsal and premiere in 1974.^[5]
The opera received its east coast United States professional premiere in July 2004, at Bard College's, SummerScape in Annandale-on-Hudson NY, directed by Francesca Zambello and performed by the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein ^[6].
The opera was shown at Opera Boston in early 2009,^[7] and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in March 2010. Audio recordings of Metropolitan Opera performances are usually made available over the Internet to subscribers on the Met Player. This production was revived in 2013, and will be beamed to cinemas around the world as part of the Metropolitan Opera's "Live in HD" programme. ^[8]

Instrumentation[edit]

flute (doubling piccolo, alto flute), oboe (doubling cor anglais), clarinet (doubling piccolo clarinet, A clarinet, alto clarinet), bassoon(doubling contrabassoon), horn, trumpet(doubling cornet, trombone, triangle, tambourine, castanets, tamburo, tom-tom, ratchet, cymbals, bass drum, snare drum, tam-tam, glockenspiel, tubular bells, Xylophone, Flexatone, small domra, alto domra, balalaika, whistle, hammering sound, harp, piano, violin, viola, cello, contrabass

Synopsis[edit]

Act 1[edit]

The morning after shaving Kovalyov, one of his regular customers, a barber finds a nose in his bread. He tries to get rid of it by throwing it in the Neva River, but he is caught by a police officer. Meanwhile Kovalyov wakes and finds his nose missing. He later sees his nose in the Kazan Cathedral, but it has acquired a higher rank than he and refuses to return to his face.

Act 2[edit]

Kovalyov visits the newspaper office to place an advertisement about the loss of his nose, but is refused. He returns to his flat, where his servant sings a love song and Kovalyov is left in despair.

Act 3[edit]

A group of policemen are at a coach station, in order to prevent the nose from escaping. The nose tries to get on the coach at the last minute: the horse is frightened and runs away, while the driver tries to shoot the nose. The nose is caught, beaten and returned to Kovalyov; however, he is unable to reattach it. He suspects that he has been enchanted by a woman called Madame Podtochina, because he would not marry her daughter. He writes to ask her to undo the spell, but she misinterprets the letter as a proposal to her daughter. She convinces him that she is innocent. In the city, crowds gather in search of the nose.

Epilogue[edit]

Kovalyov wakes up with his nose reattached. He is shaved by the barber and flirts as he walks along Nevsky Prospekt.

Recordings[edit]

Source: Recordings of The Nose on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk

• 1975 Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Melodiya – remastered version of a production that was overseen by the composer. No libretto.
• 2009 Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky – full Russian and English libretto.

Video[edit]

• 1979 Eduard Akimov (Platon Kuzmich Kovalyov), Alexander Lomonosov (The Nose), Valery Belykh (Ivan Yakovlevich, a barber), Nina Sasulova (Praskovia Osipovna, the barber's wife), Boris Tarkhov (Local Policeman), Boris Druzhinin (Ivan, Kovalyov's footman), Ashot Sarkisov (Doctor). Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Moscow Chamber Opera Theatre, Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

References[edit]

Commentary notes

1. Jump up ^ The title in Russian (Нос, "Nos") is the reverse of the Russian word for "dream" (Сон, "Son").

Notes

1. Jump up ^ Boosey & Hawkes, Repertoire note
2. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} Wilson, p. 84
3. Jump up ^ Hulme, p. 44
4. Jump up ^ Wilson, p. 85
5. Jump up ^ Dmitri Schostakowitsch: Dem kühlen Morgen entgegen, 3sat, 2008. (German)
6. Jump up ^ http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=744
7. Jump up ^ Opera Boston: link to notes and information on The Nose retrieved 14 March 2010^{[dead link]}
8. Jump up ^ http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/1314

Sources

• Frolova-Walker, Marina (2005). "11. Russian opera; Two anti-operas: The Love for Three Oranges and The Nose". In Mervyn Cooke. The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera. London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 182–186. ISBN 0-521-78393-3. 
• Hulme, Derek C., Dimitri Shostakovich, Scarecrow Press 2002
• Wilson, Elizabeth, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. London: Faber, 2006

Further reading

• Бретаницкая, Алла Леонидовна: «Нос» Д. Д. Шостаковича. Путеводитель. (The "Nose" by D. D. Shostakovich. A guidebook.) Москва, 1983. «Музыка»

External links[edit]

• Libretto of The Nose
• Video of Shostakovich at a rehearsal of The Nose in 1974, excerpts from a 1975 documentary by Iurii Beliankin

[show] v t e Dmitri Shostakovich Operas The Nose Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Moscow, Cheryomushki Katerina Ismailova Orango Ballets The Golden Age The Bolt The Limpid Stream ("The Bright Stream") Symphonies No. 1 in F minor No. 2 in B major ("To October") No. 3 in E♭ major ("The First of May") No. 4 in C minor No. 5 in D minor No. 6 in B minor No. 7 in C major ("Leningrad") No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in E minor No. 11 in G minor ("The Year 1905") No. 12 in D minor ("The Year 1917") No. 13 in B♭ minor ("Babi-Yar") No. 14 in G minor No. 15 in A major Concertos Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor Violin Concerto No. 2 in C♯ minor Cello Concerto No. 1 in E♭ major Cello Concerto No. 2 in G major Orchestra works Suite from "The Nose" Suite from "The Golden Age" Suite from "The Bolt" Suite from "The Limpid Stream" Suite from "Encounter at the Elbe" ("Meeting on the Elbe") Suite from "The Gadfly" Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1' Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 Suite for Variety Orchestra Tahiti Trot "Festive Overture" in A major for Orchestra "Novorossiisk Chimes, the Flame of Eternal Glory" for Orchestra Film music The New Babylon Alone Golden Mountains Counterplan The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda The Youth of Maxim Girl Friends The Return of Maxim The Vyborg Side Friends The Great Citizen Zoya Simple People The Young Guard Pirogov Michurin Meeting on the Elbe The Fall of Berlin Belinsky The Unforgettable Year 1919 The Gadfly Five Days, Five Nights Sofiya Perovskaya Hamlet King Lear Vocal music Rayok ("Little Paradise") Song of the Forests Suite on Finnish Themes From Jewish Folk Poetry Seven Songs on Poems by Alexander Blok Chamber music String quartets No. 1 in C major No. 2 in A major No. 3 in F major No. 4 in D major No. 5 in B♭ major No. 6 in G major No. 7 in F♯ minor No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in A♭ major No. 11 in F minor No. 12 in D♭ major No. 13 in B♭ minor No. 14 in F♯ major No. 15 in E♭ minor Other Quartet Movement in E♭ major (c. 1960s) Violin Sonata Cello Sonata in D minor Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Piano Quintet in G minor Piano music Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor Twenty-Four Piano Preludes and Fugues "Children's Notebook" (6) Three Fantastic Dances Related articles List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Post-romanticism Neoclassicism Portal:Classical music

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Categories:

• Operas based on works by Nikolai Gogol
• Operas by Dmitri Shostakovich
• Russian-language operas
• 1930 operas
• Operas
• Humor in classical music