In 1930, Dmitri Shostakovich began to work on “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”: based on the plot by Nikolaj Leskov, the opera tells the story of the oppressed Katerina, who is torn out of her life by an intense love for the shady Sergei and wants to secure her happiness with murder. When it was completed in 1934, the work was simultaneously prepared by two theatres: the premiere took place in Leningrad, and two days later it was shown in Moscow – where, as in other cities, the opera was a great success. Shortly after the first performances, Shostakovich was already forced to change some of the passages that were all too sexually explicit. After Stalin visited a performance of the opera in 1936 and then published a scathing review about it, colleagues and critics, who had previously approved of the opera, turned against Shostakovich. It was only about 30 years later that the opera was performed again in the Soviet Union, in a toned-down version under the name “Katerina Ismailova”, which was also performed internationally. In 1980 the original version came to Western Europe. In 2009 it was premiered at the Vienna State Opera too. The highly acclaimed premiere of the original version is featured on this recording.

Ingo Metzmacher, conducter of the premiere from 2009, is a welcome guest at the most important opera houses in Europe and at the Salzburg Festival, where he has conducted the world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s opera “Dionysos” as well as Bernd Alois Zimmermanns “Die Soldaten”, Franz Schuberts “Fierrabras” and George Enescus “Oedipe”, among others. He is also the author of books on opera and modern composers.

ORFEO has originally released this recording in 2011. Due to its importance to the label catalogue the album is now re-issued with an updated artwork.