Shostakovich: Katerina Izmailova, Op. 114

Description

Libretto by Alexander Preys and Dmitri Shostakovich based on the novel-sketch by Nikolai Leskov 'Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District', Op. 29, No. 114. Version of 1963 year.

Edited by Victor Ekimovsky. Explanatory article by Svetlana Lashchenko and Marina Raku.

The piano score and full score of the second version of the opera were published in Moscow by Muzyka Publishers in 1965.

The full score of the first version of the opera was not published during Shostakovich's lifetime. in the second half of the 1970s, the composer's widow, Irina Shostakovich, sent the copy of the manuscript she had to Mstislav Rostropovich for performing and recording. in 1978, this version of the work was recorded by Rostropovich and the musician handed the notation he had to Hans Sikorski Publishers. The publisher also received world rights from the heirs to hire out the first version of the opera. Later, when conditions developed in Russia for performing and publishing the first version of the work, Hans Sikorski Publishers handed a copy to DSCH Publishers for hire of the first version of the opera in the composer's homeland. Nowadays, the first version of the opera has essentially replaced the second version on the stages of all of the world's opera theatres.