A Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Opera by Dmitri Shostakovich (libretto by A Preis and the composer, based on a novel by N S Leskov), first produced in Moscow, Russia, on 22 January 1934. It was very successful at first, but was later discountenanced as decadent by the Soviet government; it was revised as Katerina Izmaylova and produced in 1963. It tells how, tormented by her father-in-law Boris, Katerina Izmaylova has an affair with a servant named Sergei while her ineffectual husband, Zinovy, is away. Boris discovers Sergei and brutally whips him, but Katerina has her revenge by poisoning Boris. Suspicious, Zinovy returns and beats her, but Sergei intervenes and kills him. The police are informed and the couple are led away. In a group of convicts, Sergei flirts with a young prisoner to provoke Katerina. She throws her rival off a bridge, and jumps into the rapids herself.