> Home > Columns > Sam Smith > A Truly Overwhelming Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden A Truly Overwhelming Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk @ Royal Opera, London 1, 5, 8, 14, 7, 20 April 2004 ... Royal Opera House. Stalin, either in person or by proxy, famously described Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk as “muddle instead of music”, in a Pravda editorial that only fortuitously failed to damn Shostakovich to the gulags or to execution. Although initially enjoying great success, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk of 1934 has courted controversy almost from day one. Of Shostakovich’s initial undertaking – a trilogy on the tragic destinies of Russian women through the ages – only one opera was ever written: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, his visceral story of love, emancipation, and murder, a searing and provocative work that was banned from performance for thirty years by the Soviet authorities. New Production! On the other hand, as Shostakovich's dark opera unfolds there is a more compelling link with three different entries in the … Royal Opera House; H alf cynical farce, half bleak tragedy, Shostakovich’s second opera has a schizoid quality that should leave audiences feeling disorientated. The Royal Opera's Macbeth double is an obvious gimmick.Antonio Pappano follows Verdi's Shakespearean tragedy with this once-notorious adaptation of Nikolai Leskov's tale, even though the works are unconnected and the latter's title is just catchpenny stuff. Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (Russian: Леди Макбет Мценского уезда Ledi Makbet Mtsenskovo uyezda) is an 1865 novella by Nikolai Leskov.It was originally published in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's magazine Epoch.. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk review ★★★★★, Royal Opera House 12 Apr 18 – 27 Apr 18 , 7:00 PM – 10:30 PM The scheming wife becomes a central character in her own right in Shostakovich's opera about frustration and infidelity Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Royal Opera House, London, review: This masterpiece is still magnificent. What was he thinking? Opera review: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk - Royal Opera House I first saw this opera by Shostakovich a couple of years ago at the English National opera and thought it was wonderful. Shostakovich’s opera is based on Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov, the same short story used as source material for the 2016 film Lady Macbeth, directed by William Oldroyd and written by Alice Birch. It is the story of a lonely woman in 19th century Russia, who falls in love with one of her husband’s workers and is driven to murder. It was condemned in 1936 and bann Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk … This four act opera by Dmitry Shostakovich was premiered in 1934 in St Petersburg and two days later in Moscow.