Lady MacBeth resurrected : the effects of perestroika and glasnost' on Russian art music performance and reception

Opera in the Soviet Union constitutes a case of a government imposing excessive control on the genre. Soviet composers were expected to uphold the idea of socialist realism, and in turn, glorify the State. In 1936, government officials condemned Dmitri Shostakovich's opera, Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, that had previously received worldwide acclaim. In the 1950s Shostakovich revised sections of the opera and retitled it Katerina Ismailova. The revisions made were an attempt to remove more explicit and objectionable material from the original. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the policies of perestroika and glasnost rehabilitated works once suppressed by the government, notably literature and rock music. Art music was also affected by perestroika and glasnost, but not to the same extent. This thesis will examine the effects of perestroika and glasnost in art music by tracing the history of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk. During the late 1980s, art music that had previously been suppressed was performed in concerts and discussions of Shostakovich's condemned opera appeared in print. However, the original opera was not restaged in Russia until 1996, after the era of perestroika. This is in contrast to works of literature and rock music that the government approved as a result of the open policies of the time.