Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (opera)

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Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Op. 29 (Russian: Леди Макбет Мценского уезда, romanized: Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uyezda, lit. 'Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District'), is an opera in four acts and nine scenes by Dmitri Shostakovich. The libretto, jointly written by Alexander Preis and the composer, is based on the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. Dedicated by Shostakovich to his first wife, the physicist Nina Varzar, the opera was first performed on 22 January 1934 at the Leningrad Maly Operny Theatre, and received its Moscow premiere two days later. It combines elements of expressionism and verismo, telling the story of Katerina Izmailova, a lonely woman in 19th-century Russia who falls in love with one of her husband's workers and becomes involved in a sequence of murders.

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