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Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
By Michael Van Duzer
Occasionally, the offstage drama inherent in putting up a production is every bit as dramatic as the show itself. Los Angeles Opera found themselves in this unenviable position with their third offering of the season, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. The production, a replacement for the previously announced, War and Peace had the bad luck to run afoul of the port closures. The ship carrying the sets and costumes from Russia had been detoured to Japan. With the opening looming, the company made the decision to build new sets from scratch in 10 days. An amazing feat under any circumstances but even more so when you consider issues like the rehearsal time, union rules, and the language barrier. No wonder the opening night audience gave an appreciative round of applause to George Tsypin's mammoth wood-slat set.
With all this backstage turmoil it would be easy for the opera to have been overshadowed, but, thanks to the sheer professionalism of the Kirov Opera and their musical director, Valery Gergiev, the production proved worth the extra effort.
Shostakovich's lurid domestic tragedy may not retain the shock value that once prompted Stalin to ban the piece, but it's still powerfully unsettling. Much of this comes from the opera's casual juxtaposition of comedy and murder. This is not the familiar British form of sophisticated black comedy but a grotesquely proletarian combination of violent urges with farce that is purely Russian. Shostakovich matched this story with a score that is wild, rugged, sexy, bombastic, and unaccountably beautiful. Gergiev understands this music and leads his orchestra on a breathless roller coaster ride that leaves us gasping at their technical prowess and audacity.
Director Irina Molostova mines the piece for all its satiric elements without losing focus on the humanity of the characters. She also chooses to play the sexual elements for all they're worth without venturing into the realm of exploitation. Her sure hand is most notable in the parade of secondary characters, all with their own distinctive characters and lives immediately familiar.
As the opera has an unusual run of consecutive performances, most of the roles are triple cast, but all combinations will, no doubt, be of a similar caliber of the opening night performers. Larissa Shevchenko's Katerina (the titular heroine) is strongly sung and affecting, if a touch matronly, to be totally believable as a youthful murderess. As the lover who fans the flames of her passion, Vladimir Grishko's Sergei is properly cocky and self-absorbed. Vladimir Vaneev's impressive basso blustered convincingly as Katerina's hapless father-in-law and first victim, while Leonid Zakhozhaev made the most of his moments as Katerina's impotent husband.
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion October 23-28, 2002 www.losanglesopera.com
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