Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Explore Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (2019), including ReelBot’s take, cast, runtime, where to watch, and similar movies worth adding to your list.

2019 · 178 min · Music

Overview

Of Shostakovich’s initial undertaking – a trilogy on the tragic destinies of Russian women through the ages – only one opera was ever written: the hard-hitting Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Although one of the mainsprings of the work, the Shakespearean parallel is here bitterly ironic: unlike Lady Macbeth, Katerina Ismaïlova who, in the remote reaches of rural 19th century Russia, falls in love with one of her husband’s employees and is finally forced to commit suicide, is less a manipulator than a victim of a violent and patriarchal society. Krzysztof Warlikowski liberates all the subversive power of this scorching and scandalous work, which marked the early years of the Opéra Bastille.

Directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski

Cast

• Aušrinė Stundytė — Katerina Lvovna Ismailova
• Pavel Cernoch — Serguei
• Dmitry Ulyanov — Boris Timofeevich Ismailov
• Sofija Petrovic — Aksinya
• John Daszak — Zinovy Borisovich Ismailov