Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is one of the most famous Russian operas of the 20th century. Not only did it vividly reflect the era but became its first victim. It was its demolition in the newspaper “Pravda” that started the campaign against formalism in Soviet art. The prohibited opera managed to return to the stage only after almost thirty years’ wait, in the new edition under the name Katerina Izmailova.

It was the edition that the Bolshoi Theatre referred to at the time when the hundred and tenth anniversary of the birth of the composer was celebrated. These days, when the first edition is the one that is performed around the world, Katerina Izmailova is a true operatic rarity. Tugan Sokhiev, the music director of the Bolshoi and of the production itself, is telling us what considerations the theatre was guided by to choose the second edition: “Knowing Shostakovich as the author of symphonies, quartets and ballets, I can say that late Shostakovich’s works seem closer and more interesting to me, and this particular edition of the opera allows me to have a deeper and further look into it. First of all, I am attracted to the continual development in Katerina Izmailova: from the beginning to the end our nerves are being wound on a reel”.