Nose, The

Opera by Shostakovich (libretto by A Preis, A Zamyatin, G Yonin, and composer, after a short story by Gogol). The story concerns the disappearance of a nose belonging to a government official and the opera was described by contemporary Russian critics as an example of bourgeois decadence. Barber Ivan discovers a nose in his morning bread; Major Kovalyov wakes up missing his nose. The nose later appears running aound in human size and treating everyone with contempt, as the police inspector chases it. Eventually it is caught and returned to Kovalyov. 1927–28, first performed Leningrad, Maly Theatre, 12 January 1930.