• Dmitry Shostakovich. Opera in three acts. 1928.
• Libretto by the composer, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ionin and Alexander Preys, after the story by Gogol.
• First performance at the Malïy Opera Theatre, Leningrad, on 18th January 1930.

The barber Ivan Yakovlevich finds a nose in his freshly baked breakfast bread and is sent out by his shrewish wife to dispose of it. Throwing it into the river, he is challenged by the Police Inspector. Major Kovalyov wakes up to find his nose gone and leaves to see the Chief of Police. In Kazan Cathedral the Nose, in the uniform of a State Councillor, is at prayer, recognised by Kovalyov, who fears to approach anyone in such a high position. In a newspaper office people place advertisements, but Kovalyov's intended advertisement for a lost nose is rejected as beneath the paper's dignity. The Police Inspector now has orders to stop the Nose leaving St Petersburg. As a coach leaves the city, the Nose runs after it, frightens the horses and is caught and beaten down to normal size. The Police Inspector returns the Nose to Kovalyov and after a number of hints is duly rewarded. Kovalyov cannot get it back on again and a doctor tells him it is impossible. Kovalyov suspects the sorcery of Madame Podtochina, who wants him to marry her daughter, and letters are exchanged. Meanwhile people gather in the streets, hoping to see the Nose. In the epilogue Kovalyov wakes up with his nose in place, is shaved by Yakovlevich, and goes out to call on Madame Podtochina, greeting friends and acquaintances on the way.

There is considerable use of parody in Shostakovich's score for the absurd story of The Nose. Even with doubling, the need to cast 78 acting or singing rôles offers problems. The composer arranged a seven part Suite from the opera, for tenor, bass and orchestra.