Opera Dmitry Shostakovich "The Nose" (opera in three acts and ten scenes) World famous Mariinsky Ballet and Opera - Mariinsky II (New Theatre)
Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes (till 21:25)
The performance has 1 intermission
Schedule for Dmitry Shostakovich "The Nose" (opera in three acts and ten scenes) 2022
Composer: Dmitry Shostakovich Principal Chorus Master: Andrei Petrenko Musical Director: Maestro Valery Gergiev Lighting Designer: Gleb Filshtinsky Musical Preparation: Irina Soboleva Set Designer: Zinovy Margolin Stage Director: Yuri Alexandrov Set Designer: Yuri Alexandrov Costume Designer: Maria Danilova Lighting Designer: Kamil Kutyev Piano: Irina Soboleva
Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra Opera company: Mariinsky (Kirov) Opera
Opera in 3 act
Performed in Russian, with synchronised English supertitles
World premiere: 18 January 1930, State Academic Maly Opera Theatre, Leningrad, USSR
Premiere of this production: 10 April 2004 , Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Russia
Shostakovich was only 20 when he began writing The Nose, his operatic debut. He turned to a tiny short story by Gogol: an absurdist satire, where a civil servant’s errant nose launches its owner on a ludicrous battle against both nose and the authorities, as bureaucratic processes break down in the face of so unusual a problem. Gogol’s surrealist fable fired Shostakovich’s imagination, and he responded with a work of exuberant energy, full of musical jokes and grotesque parody – from the famed Act I entr’acte for percussion ensemble to plaintive laments, careening counterpoint, folksong (accompanied by balalaika) and rambunctious polkas.
Shostakovich finished the work in about a year, and in the following months gave successful performances of extracts from the opera. But it was to be another two years, in 1930, before The Nose was staged in full, by which time Soviet cultural climate had turned sternly against works of such perceived frivolity. The opera was quickly dropped from the repertory; but since its rediscovery in the 1960s it has steadily gained recognition for Shostakovich’s baffling, brilliant wit.
Libretto by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ionin, Alexander Preis and the composer after the short story by Nikolai Gogol
Synopsis
Act I Scene 1. Either in a dream or in reality, the barber Ivan Yakovlevich is doing his hateful job in a drunken stupor. Scene 2. Ivan Yakovlevich and his wife Praskovia are taken aback to find a nose in a bread roll. Scene 3. The panic-stricken barber tries to dispose of the evidence. Scene 4. When he wakes up in the morning, Major Kovalev discovers his nose has disappeared. Scene 5. Inside Kazan Cathedral, Major Kovalev unexpectedly meets his nose and tries to speak to it.
Act II Scene 6. A newspaper advertisements department: Kovalev tries to submit an advertisement about the disappearance of his nose. Unsuccessfully. Scene 7. Kovalev´s apartment. The major´s footman Ivan is relaxing quietly, and Kovalev´s despair increases.
Act III Scene 8. A coaching-inn. The district constable is giving instructions to his men to capture the travelling Nose. A procession of travellers enters: a mother and father with their two sons, Ivan Ivanovich and Pyotr Fyodorovich, an elderly lady surrounded by hangers-on and a bread roll seller. Suddenly the nose appears. In the confusion, they manage to catch it. Scene 9. Kovalev´s apartment. The district constable brings Kovalev his Nose and, on receiving his reward, disappears. In vain, the major tries to put the Nose back on his face. A doctor arrives but is unable to help Kovalev. Kovalev and his friend Yaryzhkin suspect the guilty party to be staff-officer Podtochina, acting in revenge for Kovalev´s contempt for her daughter. The friends write a letter to Podtochina, which Ivan the footman delivers. Ivan returns with an answer and Kovalev understands that the women are innocent. Scene 10. A street. A rumour is spreading over the city that Kovalev´s Nose has run away. The horrific tale has captured the imagination of the whole city: Everyone, including the eminent merchant Khorzev-Mirza, is discussing the event in the most animated fashion. Unexpectedly Major Kovalev joins the mêlée: his nose is exactly where it should be.
Schedule for Dmitry Shostakovich "The Nose" (opera in three acts and ten scenes) 2022
Extract from the opera Dmitry Shostakovich "The Nose" |
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About This Video 05:48 Extract from the opera Dmitry Shostakovich "The Nose"
Solist of Mariinskiy theatre Vladimir Samsonov
Mariinsky theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia |
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