Description
Dmitri Shostakovich's 'Lady Macbeth of Mtensk' is an interesting and unusual treatment of Nikolai Leskov's short story (after Shakespeare's play). Shostakovich loved the character of Katerina Izmaylova so deeply that he could not bear to see her as Lady Macbeth, that is, as a wanton murderer. Instead, Shostakovich changed her from a sex-crazed fury into a heroic victim of her time and place. As he wrote years later, "I dedicated Lady Macbeth to my bride, my future wife, so naturally the opera is about love, too, but not only love. It's also about how love could have been if the world weren't full of vile things." This edition of the libretto is in English only.