Operagasm: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

One of the upsides of choosing to write my Music History term paper on a notorious Soviet opera is that it gives me loads of material for one of these posts. Dmitri Shostakovich's second opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, is just straight-up insane – and it's got enough explicit sex and violence to make Carmen look like The Merry Wives of Windsor. Seriously, Lady Macbeth is like an episode of Dexter in operatic form. The only real difference (aside from the gender of the protagonist, the whole “being set in pre-revolutionary Russia” thing, and just about everything else) is that Katerina Izmailova, the titular murderess, doesn't kill other serial killers – just her father-in-law, her husband, and anyone else who tries to come between her and her hunky new boyfriend that raped her but now she's crazy in love with him and oh my god Shostakovich what the fuck is wrong with you.

So, yeah. Maybe not so much with the whole Dexter comparison. I mean, Dexter Morgan might be an unrepentant serial murderer, but at least he only kills people who deserve it (mostly). But Katerina, on the other hand... there's no way we could be expected to sympathize with her, right?

Wait. We are supposed to sympathize with her? ...huh.

Waaait. She's the only character in the opera who's portrayed in a remotely sympathetic light? ...huh.

Waaaaaaaaaiiiiiiit. Shostakovich dedicated this opera (about a woman who cheats on and then straight-up murders her husband) to his new wife?

Um. Wow. Talk about getting a one-way train ticket to Saint Awkwardsburg (actually, since we're talking about the Soviet Union, it'd probably be called Uncomfortablegrad instead).

In any case, Shostakovich based his opera on Nikolai Leskov's 1865 horror story of the same name – and to his credit, the operatic incarnation of Katerina is more sympathetic than the original, but only because she doesn't murder quite as many people as she does in Leskov's story. Seriously, her main heroic virtue can pretty much be summed up as “She's still a murderous sex addict, but she could have been even worse!”

How much worse, you ask?

In Leskov's story, Katerina's third victim was Fedya, her late husband's adorable young nephew – and legal heir to the Izmailov family's property – whom she smothered with a pillow against her ample bosom. (And before anyone asks: no, I'm not making that up.) Shostakovich, however, opted to leave Fedya out of the opera entirely, because “the killing of a child, however it might be explained, always creates a negative impression.”

Holy shit, really? I guess I should probably get another hobby.

Really, though, the only thing I get out of that statement is that Shostakovich had actually seriously considered having his sympathetic heroine murder a little boy, and only decided to leave it out because he couldn't think of an adequate justification. For those of you unfamiliar with modern social mores, here's a handy-dandy primer on the subject:

TIMES WHEN IT'S OKAY TO MURDER CHILDREN

1) When the child is the Antichrist.

2) When the child is a zombie.

3) When the child just WON'T STOP CRYING

4) When the child is involved in any of the High School Musical movies.

Actually, that last one really only makes me want to kill myself – but I think I've made my point. As previously mentioned, however, Shostakovich left the sexualized child-murderin' out of the opera, meaning that Katerina only has three murders on her conscience instead of four. (I'm starting to like her more already!) And to further ameliorate the moral questionability of his heroine, Shostakovich also decided to make everyone else in the opera a complete asshole.

Of course, audiences ate that shit up. Lady Macbeth had everything an opera-goer could want: great music, sex, violence, and... yeah, that's pretty much all anyone could ask for. Lady Macbeth was a worldwide sensation for the better part of two years. There was just one problem:

Soviet Critic: I love the idea for your new opera, man. I especially like how the only remotely likeable character in your opera is a serial killer.

Shostakovich: Yeah, it's like... social commentary or something. Here, have some more vodka.

Soviet Critic: Don't mind if I do.

Shostakovich: She also has a bunch of sex.

Soviet Critic: Nice.

Shostakovich: And she enjoys it.

Soviet Critic: NOW WAIT JUST A DAMN MINUTE

Um... yeeeeah.

Most of the negative reactions to Lady Macbeth had a less to do with the violence than with the opera's sexual content – apparently, triple homicide is no big deal as long as no one has to listen to any musical depictions of a male orgasm. Shostakovich's opera offended a fair number of people at home and abroad, but it remained an overwhelming popular success until January of 1936, when Josef Stalin attended a performance of Lady Macbeth in Moscow.

He hated it.

Two days later, an article appeared in Pravda, the official state newspaper, attacking Lady Macbeth for being ugly and cacophonous and also morally reprehensible because sex. The opera was immediately blacklisted and was not performed again in the Soviet Union until 1963, ten years after Stalin's death.

Now, the very fact that Stalin suppressed this opera is enough to make most Western audiences automatically like it – mostly as a kind of cultural “fuck you” to the USSR. On the other hand, one could also think of it this way:

Lady Macbeth is so thoroughly depraved and disturbing that it managed to offend one of the worst mass-murdering assholes of the twentieth century.

Really puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

........

Damned if it's not some awesome music, though.