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Description:
The main complaint about this production is that there is not more of it. Part of Shostakovich's opera is left out, but what remains has a coherent dramatic impact, intensified by a heavy serving of graphically explicit, precisely choreographed sex and violence. This is a hybrid, like Petr Weigl's film of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, but more smoothly executed. It does not shift between spoken German and sung Italian like that curious, intriguing production, but Weigl has again taken an outstanding opera recording, cut it down, and used it as the soundtrack for a film, with Czech performers providing the visual dimension. It works more smoothly here than it did in Maria Stuarda. The musical and theatrical performances are both extraordinary. The lip synchronization to the Russian text is not always precise, but the physical gestures coordinate with and visually reinforce the musical effects. The scenery, costumes, and atmosphere are realistic and convincing, and they add a compelling dimension to the experience. Musically, this Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is not likely to be surpassed in the foreseeable future. It is not true, as the back cover says, that Shostakovich wrote the title role for Galina Vishnevskaya; she was not quite 10 years old when it was written. But she and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich became close friends of Shostakovich, and their recording, with a carefully picked cast, is a basic document on how this opera should sound. With the enormous capacity of DVD, it should have been possible to include the whole sound recording on a separate track. But what has been included is powerful. --Joe McLellan
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