Lady Macbeth von Mzensk

This is one of the most important operas of the twentieth century, and it's great that Petr Weigl has brought us such a high-octane version. Instead of filming a stage performance, he shows actors performing in natural locations and scenery - while lip-synching to a top-notch recital by Vishnevskaya and company. This works better than you'd think; one reason is that the opera is so intense that technical details become unimportant.

Although the action scenes command attention, the central point of the work has to be Katerina's aria of loneliness - one of the most powerful declamations put on the stage. The Czech actress Markéta Hrubesová takes on a difficult job and pulls it off perfectly.

Stalin banned this work as too radical, and Shostakovich went in fear of his life for several months - one of the few times an opera has gotten mixed up in heavy-duty politics. Probably quite a few audiences will agree with Stalin, but there's no reason why intelligent people should do so. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is rarely performed outside major centres, and parts of the action are hard to follow on a recording, This movie fills the gap, leading to a real understanding of the work.

This is an oddity of sorts. I believe that the performance, featuring Rostropovich directing the London Philharmonic, preceded the film. The film was then made in eastern Europe with a cast lip-synching the performance. The film is lightly pornographic, with male and female frontal nudity and several fairly athletic sex scenes. On its own this would be a titillating, mildly interesting drama about the wanton and rather stupid wife of a rich merchant. With the music and setting of Shostakovich's opera, it stands as a highly unusual opera film. The musical performances, by the way, are acceptable -- I hesitate to say "inspired," but there are not many examples of this opera in the catalog, and (at this writing) no others on DVD.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk while not one of my absolute favourites is one of the greats when it comes to twentieth century opera. You can see why the opera caused controversy when first seen and heard, but I for one find it a highly interesting opera with magnificent music from Shostakovich, one of his best ever works actually. I was rather disappointed in this version, especially after seeing the brilliant 1969 film(incidentally titled Katerina Izmailova). A big debit was the staging of the final scene, which I found to be anti-climatic and not all that fitting with what the music was conveying. I didn't think also that it made much sense cutting out the scene with Boris' ghost, that scene adds so much to Katerina's haunted torment, and as well as giving the role some dimension I saw no real reason to not include it. The rest of the numerous cuts are not as bad, though a lot of the black humour of the opera is lost here. I didn't care for some the acting, Marketa Hrubesova has her moments but a lot of her performance reads of too much blankness and not enough fire. Michal Dlouhy is a little more consistent, but compared to the singing, like with Hrubesova actually, it lacks charisma. On the plus side, it is beautifully filmed with some very lush settings and subdued colour shadings. Petr Weigl- responsible for the masterpiece that is the 1988 Eugene Onegin- gives a stage direction that is on the most part haunting and erotic. The orchestral playing is rich and powerful, while Mistlav Rostropovich's conducting is intensely ecstatic. The singing is superb, Nicolai Gedda shows wonderful musicianship as well as a beautiful voice and aristocratic-like style and the singer of Boris is also good, but the star is Galine Vishnevskaya, whose singing of Katerina is hugely compelling, sympathetic and overall just astonishing. In conclusion, a disappointment but not a complete waste of time either. 6/10 Bethany Cox

I am skeptical of filmed opera. Its simply because I am training myself to appreciate cinematic effect. It seems that some training is required and you need to put about as much into watching as the artists did in filming. Opera is a whole different beast, musically oriented, requiring altogether different work and expertise. Filmed opera is pictures attached to music only. It must be very hard to find an expression that has both richnesses. Some of "Tales of Hoffman" worked for me.

This does as well, pretty much for the whole thing. Its because the music and the film were made separately, by altogether different artists; each one competent. Virtually nothing in the cinematic side of this is overly clever or obvious. But it holds its own because so much of the story is not in the libretto.

The structural problem with opera is that the action on stage, regardless of how lush and exaggerated, is that it is never connected to the power of the music in any way other than by association. Film, when done well, does integrated the emotional and narrative powers of vision and sound in an intimate way, so there is an inherent advantage to this project.

The visuals revolves around the power of the actress who plays a character more like Lady Chatterly than Lady MacBeth. It is important that she (the character) be obvious to what is around her, so its okay that the actress is as well. She seems to have been chosen because she has huge breasts (being a former Eastern European Playmate), is fine playing nude and in aggressive sex scenes (ditto), and is redheaded.

This latter is no small deal, and in this case is used to make her face show better with the darkish, dramatic lighting that is used to remind us that this is serious-classical-music. Well, it is, though not as complex as say, his piano preludes and fugues.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Shostakovich is my favorite composer after Alfred Schnittke but I had only heard not seen the opera. He wrote the lead role for Galina Vishnevskaya wife of Rostropovich who sings this performance. Nicolai Gedda sings the role of Sergei. The film is obviously not big budget as you can tell from the titles and other things but they are good performances all around and I like the sets, costumes and stylish film work. there are not really any special features on the disk but I was just glad to finally be able to see the opera. I think it was probably more entertaining than just watching a filmed stage version.