The famous
Victoria and Albert Museum will open new
exhibition tomorrow, and one of its sections is devoted to Dmitry Shostakovich opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Opera: Passion, Power and Politics exhibit opens in London tomorrow, September 30, RIA Novosti informs.
Seven operas are examined in two contexts: lives of their composer and the cities and countries in which they were originally performed. The exhibit starts with L’Incoronazione di Poppea illustrating pleasure-loving 17th century Venetian Republic by Claudio Monteverdi, proceeding to Nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and aristocratic codes challenging in 18th century Vienna, goes on with struggle for independence in Milan depicted in Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco. Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser and Richard Strauss’s Salome present the world of desires and emotions on the verge of 19 and 20th centuries, while section presenting George Benjamin’s Written on Skin show this topic reviewed in 21st century.
The part of the exhibition devoted to Dmitry Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is very particular, because it is devoted to very separate subject. It begins with history - first performed in Leningrad in 1934, the opera was banned by Stalin two years later. Human passion, desire and the tragic output are mixed with the mournful Soviet dictatorship theme. The design touches beloved on the West constructivist style. On the background viewers can see archive footage with the composer himself playing the Act III interlude on the piano.
Showpieces for Shostakovich opera's exhibit were brought from various museums, such as St. Petersburg theatrical and musical art museum, Mikhailovsky theater, Russian State Film and Photo Documents Archive, etc. Apart of set decorations, historical photographs and artworks of Pavel Filonov and Kuzma Petrov'Vodkin, the composer’s cabinet is recreated.
According to the museum director Tristram Hunt, five years was spent to prepare this project. Exhibit curators aimed to show various social, political cultural and economical conditions that have influenced the opera genre.
Russkiy Mir
