Joseph Stalin

3 pieces since 2009.

3 pieces
18 years

Capitol punishment

When Hans Von Bülow joked that Rienzi was Meyerbeer’s best opera, he was not very far off the mark.  In fact, Rienzi, der Letze der Tribunen, Wagner’s third opera, has all the traits of a typical “grand opéra”: it is divided in five acts, features a historical character or situation, makes large use of the […]

By 15 comments

Snow business

The life of Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is almost as melodramatic as that of its heroine. Composed in the early 1930’s, the opera was well received at its 1934 Leningrad premiere, and was also a success in Moscow a couple of years later. Then one evening Stalin came to see it and […]

By 8 comments

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