Dimitri Shostakovitch:
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, op.28 (1939)
Premiered in Leningrad with a tremendous success on December of 1934, Shostakovitch's second opera coincide in time with a series of assorted scenic scores (ballets like The Age of Gold op.22, theatrical music like Virgin Soil op.25, and film scores like Golden Mountains op.30), and strenght his name and prestige as composer. Paradoxically, it was the work which throw the anger of Josef Stalin, through the official newspaper Pravda, to his music and style, and consequently to his person putting in doubt his condition as a soviet valid for the cause; named as "musical cacophony" and "noise", the excellent and genial Shostakovitch opera disappeared from the official soviet theatres until the 8th of January 1963 when, revised and suitably lighten, it was put back on stage with the new title of Katerina Ismailova op.114.

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Ambrosian Opera Chorus
Conductor: Mstislav Rostropovitch

Galina Vishnevskaya (Ekaterina Ismailova)
Nicolai Gedda (Sergey)
Dimiter Petkov (Boris Ismailov)
Werner Krenn (Zinoviy Ismailov)
Robert Tear (A Peasent)

EMI CLASSICS CDS 7-49955-2 [2 CDs] / 154' 36"

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