Summary Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich. Katerina Izmailova
KATERINA ISMAILOVA
Opera in four acts (nine scenes)
Libretto by N. Leskov A. Preiss and D. Shostakovich
Characters:
Boris Timofeevich Izmaylov, merchant Zinovy Borisovich Izmailov, his Son, merchant Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, wife Zinoviy Borisovich Sergey, employee The crooked man Aksinya Worker with a mill The clerk 1st employee 2 nd employee 3rd employee Coachman Janitor Teacher Priest Quarterly City Drunk guest Unter Hourly Sonnet, convict Old convict Convict | High bass Tenor Soprano Tenor Tenor Soprano Baritone Bass Tenor Tenor Tenor Tenor Bass Tenor Bass Baritone Bass Tenor Baritone Bass Contralto Bass Soprano |
Workers,
Location: Russian county city.
Time: the middle of the XIX century.
HISTORY OF CREATION
The subject basis of the opera was the story of NS Leskov (1831-1895) “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district” (1864), one of the most terrible pages of Russian literature exposing the “dark realm” of the pre-reform merchant Russia. Wild arbitrariness, senseless cruelty, outrage over a man, gross debauchery – with such colors the writer depicts a world in which rich merchant Katerina Lvovna Izmailova feels like a fish in the water. No wonder Leskov likens it to a pike – the most predatory fish of Russian rivers. She kills her father-in-law, her husband, the innocent boy Fedya Lyamin, the co-heir of her estate, so that nothing will interfere with the satisfaction of her passion for the clerk. Idealizing the primordial purity
Such a position could not satisfy the Soviet artist. The librettist A. Preuss and the composer who directed him essentially revised the story of Leskov’s story. Almost nothing changing in the actions of Katerina Lvovna (only the murder of Fedya Lyamin was removed), they changed their motives. The main heroine appeared not only as a product, but also as a victim of the Domostroev way of merchant life. Her protest against lawlessness and mockery, for asserting her own human dignity, took on the ugly and cruel forms of the environment in which she had formed. Internal motives of her behavior are not only from the verbal text, but primarily from music. Katerina Izmailova – the only (not including episodic) character of the opera, able to feel humanly, knowing strong emotional impulses, eager to escape from the dull,
The composer called his work “a tragic satire.” In contrast to Leskov’s household story, there is a highly developed grotesque beginning, especially in the depiction of the society surrounding the main characters. The pop cynic and martinet, guests at the wedding, a depraved mongrel, brutish policemen remind more of the characters of Gogol and Shchedrin than Leskov. The scene in the police station is directly borrowed from Saltykov-Shchedrin. In some moments (for example, Katerina’s farewell to her departing husband), the influence of AN Ostrovsky (“The Storm”) is felt.
The opera was written by D. Shostakovich in 1930-1932. The first performance on the stage of the Leningrad Maly Opera Theater was held on January 22, 1934, on January 24 of the same year the opera titled “Katerina Izmailova” was first shown in Moscow, in the Musical Theater. V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. In the following four years, the opera was staged in Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Stockholm, Prague, London (concert performance), Copenhagen, Zurich, Zagreb, Bratislava, and others.
In 1956, the composer made a new version of the opera, making some corrections to the verbal text and writing again two symphonic intermission. In this form, the opera was first shown in Moscow on the stage of the Theater. KS Stanislavsky and VI Nemirovich-Danchenko in December 1962.
PLOT
Gloomy boredom reigns in the house of the famous merchant Zinovy Borisovich Izmailov. His young wife, Katerina Lvovna, is exhausted from idleness and loneliness. And then the father-in-law, Boris Timofeevich, reproaches us with reproaches: “She is married for the fifth year, she has not yet given birth to the baby.” The suspicious old man is sure that Katerina is just thinking about how to escape with some good fellow, but no, shalish: the fence is high, the dogs are down, the workers are faithful. Izmailov’s employee reports that a dam broke through a distant mill. Zinovy Borisovich is going to the road. After the shout of the old merchant, the mogul picks up a feigned crying. The old man demands that the son take an oath from Catherine on the icon that he will remain true. When everyone diverge, the cook Aksinya tells Katerina about the new worker, Sergei: “What you want the woman to bring to sin”; and from the former place they drove him away,
Taking advantage of the lack of a master, the Izmailovs and Sergey’s mongrel amused themselves over Aksinya, putting her in an empty barrel. Seeing this, Katerina confronts the cook, threatens to show her feminine power, beat the ringleader Sergei. Sergei cheekily offers the lady to fight. In the midst of the struggle, Boris Timofeevich appears. He drives everyone to work, and Katerina threatens to tell her husband everything.
The day has passed. Katerina in the bedroom again languishing with boredom – there is no one to say to whom. So life will pass in four walls, behind pudostamps, without love, without happiness. Sergey is knocking at the door; he is also bored. To begin with, he asks for a book, but there are no books in the house. Then an experienced seducer with feigned participation talks about a sad female share, hints that it would be nice for a young woman to get a girlfriend. Katerina asks him to leave, but Sergei, suddenly emboldened, embraces her.
Boris Timofeevich wanders around the yard with a lantern. The old man can not sleep: he imagines thieves, he recalls how in his youth he walked under the windows of other people’s wives, sometimes he climbed into the windows. After seeing the light at Katerina Lvovna, he decided to shake the old days, get to his daughter-in-law, but suddenly he heard her say goodbye to Sergei as he climbed out of the window and went down the pipe. Grabbing him by the collar, Boris Timofeevich convokes people and immediately beats Sergei with a whip. Tired, he orders to lock him in the cellar and requires fungi. Katerina pours into the fungus of rat poison and feeds her father-in-law. When he falls, she takes away the keys from him and unlocks the cellar. The clerks going to work see the dying master and call the priest. Katerina explains that the old man ate fungi at night, and many, their poevshi, die. The priest willingly agrees with her.
In the bed of Katerina Lvovna lies Sergey, dejected by the coming visit of Zinovy Borisovich. He does not want to be a secret admirer of Katerina, to be seen only at night, and to hide from all the day. Now, if it were possible before God to become her husband. Katerina reassures him. When Sergei falls asleep, she sees the phantom of Boris Timofeevich, cursing the poisoner. Behind the door are heard barely audible steps; her husband returned from the mill. Katerina hides her lover and unlocks it slowly. Zinovy Borisovich maliciously asks her, but noticing the man’s belt, he attacks with beatings. At the cry of Katerina Sergei comes out, together they strangle Zinovy Borisovich and hide the corpse in the cellar.
Now the barriers have disappeared. Today is the wedding of Katerina and Sergei. But the conscience gnaws at the murderer. Katherine is drawn to the cellar by an incomprehensible force. The crooked little peasant has long noticed this – see, there are good wines in the cellar! He is thirsty. Waiting until the newlyweds left for the church, he breaks the lock and, finding the corpse, runs to the police in horror!
At the congress, the policemen are sadly dawdling. Quarterly is offended that he was not invited to Izmaylova’s wedding. The cityman leads a “nihilist” who doubted God; he discovered that the soul is not only in man, but also in a frog, “only small and not immortal.” Appears ragged little man. Trembling with fear, he reports that Izmailov has a corpse in his cellar. At the same time the enlivened policemen go to Izmailov.
Wedding feast in full swing. Half-drunken guests with a priest at the head of glorify the newlyweds. Suddenly, Katerina notices that the lock on the cellar is shot down. Realizing that the murder of Zinovy Borisovich was discovered, she decides to flee with Sergei. But it’s too late. They knock at the gate. Quarterly starts from a distance, but Katerina Lvovna herself stretches out her arms to the policemen. It is connected. Sergei tries to run away with money, but he is detained and beaten. The newlyweds are escorted to the prison in an escort.
On the bank of the river the party of convicts stopped for the night. Katerina and Sergei in different groups. Waiting until everything was quiet, Catherina begs the sentry to let her in with Sergei. But the former lover rudely drives her – this she brought him to hard labor, – and he makes his way to the young convict, Sonnetka. He cheekfully solicits her love; But the former Sonnet was not used to love for nothing. She shows her tattered stockings and demands that Sergei obtain new ones from the merchant. Deceit and cunning, pretending to be sick, he lures Katerina stockings and immediately, giving them to Sonnetka, takes her to the forest. Katerina rushes after him, but the convicts, surrounded by her, shower with sneers and mockery an unsuccessful mistress. The sentry pacifies them, but Katerina no longer notices what is happening around her. The convicts are going to the road. Katerina slowly approaches the Sonnetka, standing on the bridge, and suddenly, having pushed her into the water, she dashes after her. A fast current carries both.
MUSIC
“Katerina Izmaylova” is an opera of a truly tragic sound. Its action is full of events, in which the characters of numerous actors are deeply exposed. It is characterized by rare laconism and the power of expression. Musical sketches amaze with psychological accuracy and discernment. They used a variety of colors – a penetratingly lyrical Russian melody and an acutely grotesque rethinking of everyday genres, elements of parody and sublime drama. The orchestra party forms an independent semantic plan, and numerous symphonic episodes and interludes between the pictures complement and generalize what is happening on the stage. A colorful, pristine tart musical language, the continuity of musical and scenic development speaks of the influence of Mussorgsky’s operatic traditions.
Recitative scenes prevail in the first picture, sometimes receiving relief melodic outlines. This is the initial recitation of Katerina “Oh, I can not sleep more” with the arious conclusion “An ant drags a straw.” In the next scene, Katerina’s melancholy, melodious or morose phrases intertwine with the angry, monotonous speeches of Boris Timofeevich, moments that break into a tongue twister. The only musically completed episode of the painting is the hypocritically woeful chorus of the janitor. “Why are you leaving, master?” a parody violently melody of the choir is accompanied by a frivolous waltz in the orchestra.
The second picture breaks up into two large sections. The first is a live mass scene where, in the impetuous musical movement, Aksinya’s cries, self-assured Sergei’s insolent speeches, shouts, the laughter of a grimy peasant, a janitor, a clerk and a janitor are combined. The second section begins with the arrival of Katerina Lvovna; her aria “A lot of you, muzhiks, you have dreamed of yourself” sounds proud and unhurried.
The symphonic interlude before the third painting with a feverish excitement, uneven rhythm anticipates subsequent episodes of the opera. This rhythm comes back from time to time in the orchestra throughout the third scene. In the center of the first episode, Katerina’s aria “I once saw the window” is a wonderful example of the modern refraction of the Russian lyric song. The scene of Katerina and Sergei, at first calm, is permeated by a continuously growing internal tension; in the musical speech, Katerina’s simpleheartedness and Sergey’s pretended politeness were prominently contrasted.
The second act – the dramatic climax of action – includes two pictures. The fourth opens with a great monologue of Boris Timofeevich, in which old complaints, rough playfulness, bragging and lust are replaced. The love melody of the duet-farewell of Katerina and Sergei is accompanied by the exclamations of an enraged old man. In scenes of flogging and poisoning, the images of Boris Timofeevich and Katerina are especially detailed; at first the anger, the frenzy are suddenly replaced by equanimity, affectionate appeal to Katerina – a new bout of anger, animal fear; the second full of desperation appeals give way to caustic mocking speeches. The nervous tension of these scenes is shaded by a small chorus of workers (behind the stage) “It’s evident that soon it’s dawn.”
The symphonic interlude, written in the slow solemn movement of the Passacaglia, concentrates the tragedy of the second act. One of his musical themes continues to develop in the fifth film. In the initial scene stands out the hysterical-sentimental arioso of Sergei “Katerina Lvovna, Katenka.” The appearance of a ghost causes a sharp outbreak of drama. Dialogue whispered against the background of the meager guarded sounds of the orchestra precedes the arrival of Zinovy Borisovich. His scene with Katerina is built on continuous tensioning. The final part of the scene is accompanied by an ominously dry march theme in the orchestra.
In the third act, three small-sized paintings joined by symphonic intermissions. In the sixth, after a short recitative scene of Katerina and Sergei, a ragged dance song of a gauntlet “I had a fist” stood out.
The most important part of the seventh painting is occupied by a verse song of policemen; “The policeman was on time”, a chorus accompanies the chorus accompanying him in the rhythm of a smooth waltz. This grotesque sketch is supplemented by the operetta-parodic final chorus “Soon, soon, soon, soon, so that there is no reproach.”
The eighth picture opens with a mobile symphonic introduction of a polyphonic character; the melody underlying it is then widely expounded in the festively uplifted four-part chorus “Glory to Spouses”. The next scene “Who is more beautiful than the sun in the sky” (priest and guests) reproduces the wedding-ritual exchange of allegorical questions and answers. The disjointed final phrases of this scene (drunken guests fall asleep) become the backdrop of an alarming dialogue between Katerina and Sergei.
The fourth act (the ninth painting) is endowed with features of a folk drama. At the beginning and at the end of it, completing the opera, sounds a mourning chorus of convicts, headed by the Old Katorzhanin (“One verst after another”); The courageous-harsh melody of this choir is similar to the similar musical images of Mussorgsky. With the same high drama, which causes deep sympathy and compassion, Katerina’s party is imbued: its arioso “In the forest, in the most frequent there is a lake” is permeated with a torpid despair.
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