Ramon Shostakovich's Four Proposed Operas On Soviet Women?

Dmitry Shostakovich premiered his first of four proposed operas on Soviet women in 1934. Adapting Nikolai Leskov’s novella, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District (1865), Shostakovich and co-librettist Alexander Pries focused more closely on its heroine Katerina Izmailova and her frustrations. In particular, the opera centers on Katerina’s existence under patriarchal rule, which brings forward Katerina’s sexual dissatisfaction and her seeming “captivity” on the Izmailov mill. Thus, the opera concentrates on issues of patriarchy, gender, and sexuality. However, there is an additional component within the opera that is elevated to extraordinary heights in both text and music: violence. A couple years after the premiere at Leningrad’s Malïy Opernïy

The heightened sexuality and violence expressed in both the music and text of the opera were subject to the negative criticism, but these critiques do not account for the opera’s worldwide success during its initial performances. Thus, its success also reveals the attraction of such thematic components that ultimately resulted in its denunciation. Furthermore, both the attractions to and repulsions from the opera are centered on the lone sympathetic character of Katerina, and it is Katerina that is punished for her heightened sexuality, carnal desire, and fundamental

She is extraordinarily displeased with the state of her marriage: she has no children, her father-in-law, Boris, is incredibly controlling of both Zinovy and Katerina, and she is often left alone inside her home. Under these confining situations, Katerina begins to flirt with the new hire at the Izmailov mill, Sergey. While Zinovy is away tending to business, Sergey makes his way to Katerina’s room to consummate their attraction to each other. This is a cataclysmic event that spirals off into a serious of consequential and violent acts: Boris discovers Sergey’s philandering and severely beats him; in retaliation, Katerina poisons Boris; Zinovy returns after his father’s death and discovers the adulterous behavior, but he his overtaken by Katerina and Sergey and killed; Katerina becomes pregnant with Sergey’s child to secure an heir to the mill, but Zinovy’s nephew appears as the rightful heir; Katerina smothers the child with a pillow, but she is discovered; Both Sergey and Katerina are sentenced to prison; Sergey abandons Katerina in prison for a younger woman, Sonyetka; While the prisoners are transported by boat towards their Siberian destination, Katerina exacts revenge against Sergey and Sonyetka by throwing both herself and Sonyetka overboard into the river, drowning Sonyetka and