Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Starring: Michal Dlouhy, Nicolai Gedda Dvd Release: 20th July, 1999 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Colour, PAL, Region 0 Encoding

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Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich was a Russian composer of the Soviet period. His greatest works are generally considered to be his cycles of symphonies & string quartets, 15 of each. Since his death, his response to life in the USSR has been the subject of political & musical controversy. He is also sometimes known by the German spelling of his name, Dmitri Schostakovich, because of his adoption of the DSCH motif as his musical motto. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Shostakovich was a child prodigy as both a pianist & composer. His family seems to have been politically liberal & tolerant. In 1918, he wrote a funeral march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet party, murdered by Bolshevik sailors. In 1922, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory, then headed by Alexander Glazunov. However, he suffered for his perceived lack of political zeal & initially failed his exam in Marxist methodology in 1926. His first major musical achievement was the First Symphony, written as his graduation piece.

The Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda is a famous opera singer & recitalist. What he lacks in Italianate tone & squillo, he amply compensates for in versatility, with more than sixty roles to his credit, ranging from Rameau to Shostakovich. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is said to be the most widely-recorded tenor in history. Gedda was born in Stockholm to a Swedish mother & a Russian father, who sang bass in a Don Cossack choir & was cantor in a Russian Orthodox church; he grew up bilingual & learned English, German, Italian & Latin. Gedda began his professional career as a bank teller in a local bank in Stockholm. One day a wealthy client overheard him speaking about his desire to sing professionally & offered to pay for his tuition to study with Karl Martin Oehmann, a well known Wagnerian tenor from the 1920s who also discovered Jussi Bjorling. In 1952, at the age of 27, Gedda made his debut at the Royal Swedish Opera, performing the role of Chapelon in Adolphe Adam s Le Postillon di Langjumeau.

Editors Choice: Shostakovich, Joan Sutherland, Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk, View DVDology

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