Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

After bringing Dmitri Shostakovich’s early opera The Nose to life in a wonderfully grotesque staging, Barrie Kosky now turns his attention to a far more radical work by the Russian composer: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, a dark tale of sex and violence featuring one of opera’s most fascinating female characters.

Young and married into wealth, Katerina is nonetheless utterly miserable. Longing for love and joy, she finds herself trapped in a life of dreary boredom, neglected by her impotent husband and humiliated by her cruel father-in-law. In her loneliness, Katerina embarks on a passionate affair with the reckless womanizer Sergei. What begins as an erotic escape soon spirals into a series of chilling murders...

Premiering in 1934, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk broke numerous taboos of the time. Sexual acts and murderous intrigues are laid bare within an orchestral soundscape that is as erotic as it is brutal. As if that weren’t provocative enough, the composer also consistently sympathizes with his anti-heroine, a woman who, despite all her violent deeds, cannot help but move most every heart.

The 2025 Year of Shostakovich will be celebrated at the Komische Oper with a season of his works: opening with his Trio chamber composition, it then moves to the main stage with an opera double bill featuring The Nose and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, both under Barrie Kosky’s inimitable direction.