One of the most gripping operas of the 20th century is Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk . Written in 1934, in the darkest phase of Stalinism, it is about the merchant's wife Katerina Ismailova, who becomes a murderer in a Russian horror male world of greed, lust and violence. At the same time, the opera is a biting satire on the political situation at the time it was written. Andreas Homoki drew on this aspect of the grotesque in his production: he accentuated the ridiculous in the tragic part of the piece and the humor in the abysmal. «The direction jumps back and forth between farce and tragedy with virtuosity. The result is music theater that seems to glow both scenically and musically», was the verdict of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the premiere.
This season, the highly acclaimed production returns to the program, as it did in the premiere with Gun-Brit Barkmin in the title role of Katerina Ismailova. With the young Vasily Petrenko, a proven expert in the Russian repertoire is at the conductor's podium. Shostakovich's expressively haughty, grimacing music, deeply touching in its sympathetic tone for the title heroine, promises an evening of music theater full of extreme emotions.