Shostakovich Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Dmitri Shostakovich

Genre:

Opera

Label: DG

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 156

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 437 511-2GH2

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
Aage Haugland, Boris Izmailov, Bass
Alan Woodrow, Coachman, Tenor
Anatoly Kocherga, Police Sergeant, Baritone
Carlos Alvarez, Officer
Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
Eléna Zaremba, Sonyetka, Contralto (Female alto)
Grigory Gritziuk, Millhand, Baritone
Guillaume Petitot, Porter
Heinz Zednik, Shabby Peasant, Tenor
Ilya Levinsky, Teacher, Tenor
Jean Savignol, Foreman II, Tenor
Jean-Claude Costa, Foreman I, Tenor
Jean-Pierre Mazaloubaud, Steward, Bass
Johann Tilli, Sentry, Bass
José Ochagavia, Foreman III, Tenor
Kristine Ciesinski, Aksinya, Soprano
Kurt Moll, Old Convict, Bass
Margaret Jane Wray, Woman Convict, Soprano
Maria Ewing, Katerina Izmailova, Soprano
Mario Agnetti, Drunken Guest
Myung-Whun Chung, Conductor
Paris Opéra-Bastille Chorus
Paris Opéra-Bastille Orchestra
Philip Langridge, Zinovi Izmailov, Tenor
Philippe Duminy, Policeman, Bass
Romuald Tesarowicz, Priest, Bass
Sergei Larin, Sergei, Tenor
The main flaws in Rostropovich's historic recording of this opera with Galina Vishnevskaya in the title-role (and by 'historic' I don't mean 'old' but that soprano and conductor, both close friends of the composer, were obviously fired by the importance of recording the work in its unexpurgated form for the first time, and communicated that fire to their colleagues) are its very close focus on the solo voices and the at times distracting use of dramatizing effects: even when the chorus aren't singing they can often be heard muttering. Both are corrected in this new account, which has a very natural balance between voices and orchestra, and allows a cast of pungent singer-actors to do their own dramatizing. Rostropovich's version, for all that this is an opera that stands or falls by the performance of the principal soprano, is luxuriously cast, from Nicolai Gedda as Katerina's lover Sergey down to Aage Haugland (the new set's Boris) as the Sergeant. Although some of the names in the new cast are perhaps less familiar, they are no less distinguished: Larin is less characterful than Gedda but a real Russian tenor with impressive line and care for words, Haugland is a formidable bully of a Boris, Tesarowicz and Kotcherga are vivid in their roles, Zaremba a Carmen-like bitch of a Sonyetka while Kurt Moll as the Old Convict contributes much more than a cameo: he adds a whole tragic dimension to Act 3 that Alexander Malta, for Rostropovich, cannot really approach.
I would love to have seen Maria Ewing's Katerina in the theatre; in fact, having now heard her minutely detailed acting in this recording I almost feel that I have seen her. Her voice is nowhere near as commanding as Vishnevskaya's, and the recorded focus emphasizes this. There are times when you can hardly hear her above the orchestra; others indeed where you certainly cannot, and she is an unequal partner in the duet scenes with Larin and Haugland. This goes with such an intensely dramatic utterance, swooping up to and away from notes, that her singing and her parlando (her Sprechstimme, indeed) are sometimes hard to distinguish. The crucial test of her style of interpretation is the tragic 'aria' in Act 3 where Katerina realizes the worthlessness of the man for whom she has murdered and suffered both humiliation and a destruction of all hope. Ewing is graphically expressive, every word placed in poignant relief, but at times you have to guess at what notes she's sketching and the whole passage is taken at about half its marked speed. Time standing still at such a moment is effective and not inappropriate, but you only have to turn to Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich to realize than the passage can be lyrically sung and given a sense of forward movement without any loss of pathos; rather the reverse, indeed.
Chung is a first-rate Shostakovich conductor, and he gets a warmer, fuller sound from his spaciously recorded Paris players than the no doubt intentionally leaner quality that Rostropovich asks of the LPO. Oddly enough the extra brass players that the score calls for make more impact in the slightly drier older recording, and there are sufficient pages on which Rostropovich finds a touch more hysterical energy or lurid colour for me to prefer his account even if Ewing had been a closer match for the imperious but for that very reason more moving Vishnevskaya. Katerina is the Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and her fall, which begins with her descent to the vulgar Sergey, is great. Ewing is a slighter character: fascinating but not tragic.
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