Dmitri Şostakovici – representative of the national Russian music in the 20th century The opera Lady Macbeth from Mţensk, between tradition and modernity

Abstract

The opera Lady Macbeth From Mţensk is a musical drama based on the idea of
compassion towards woman’s condition in the contemporary society. It could be interpreted,
from the subject’s point of view, as a tragic metaphor. Şostakovici considered it a “satirictragedy”
where he magnifically mixes the tragic, the sarcasm and the grotesque. The
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emphasis of the material side, of human’s degradation to the level of pure physiology
constitutes a parable.
The composer stresses exactly the toughest, cruelest moments, the murders, trying to
accomplish thus a “metaphoric” analogy between the expressionist artistic elements and the
nightmare reality that he and his compatriots were experiencing. The repulsion that some
scenes from the second act as well as the final scenes create hints at the cruel reality. The
composer finds the most appropriate elements and musical means for keeping up the action
and the characters’ descriptions.