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LADY MACBETH OF THE MTSENSK DISTRICT
Opera in four acts

Composer: Shostakovich, Dmitri
Subtitle: After the story by Nikolai Leskov
Lyricists: Preiss, Alexander / Schostakowitsch, Dmitri
From work: weitere engl. Fssg. s. Memo
Playing time: 150:0
Opus/Year: 29 (1932)
Genre: Opera
Instrumentation: 3 S, A, 9 T, 2 Bar, 9 B - SATB-Chor - 3,3,4,3 - 4,3,3,1 - Pk, Schl (4 Spieler: u.a. Glsp, Xyl), 2 Harfen, Cel, Org (ad lib.), Streicher Banda (ad lib.): 2 Kornette (Es), 2 Kornette (B), 2 Trpt (B), 2 Althörner (Es), 2 Tenorhörner (B), 2 Baritone (B), 2 Tuben

Content:

The young Katerina Izmailova leads a sad life full of boredom at the side of her husband, the merchant Sinovi. When her husband has to travel for an extended period of time, Sergei, just hired as an assistant, succeeds in making Katerina his lover. This does not remain undetected by her father-in-law, who is also after her. He whips Sergei in front of all the employees, thus exposing Katerina. Full of hate, she then poisons her father-in-law. Her husband, who has heard about her infidelity and returns home sooner than planned for this reason, confronts her with the situation and wants to beat her. Sergei comes to help her. Together they beat Sinovi to death and hide the corpse in the cellar. On the day of the wedding, a drunken worker accidentally discovers the corpse and notifies the police. Katerina and Sergei are arrested and sentenced to forced labour. Sergei, who has meanwhile lost all interest in Katerina, looks after the young forced labourer Sonetka. Katerina, however, is mocked and sneered at by her fellow prisoners. In desperation, she grabs Sonetka and drags her with her into the river; both women drown in the ice-cold water.

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In printed editions:

Schostakowitsch, Dmitri