Shostakovich’s Nose is a rather interesting piece of music / opera. It’s rarely performed and there are not too many recordings of it. It’s also quite a listen even for crusty Shostakovich fans, I think (see some videos below).
Production is by South African artist William Kentridge – see Kentridge’s images for The Nose here. This could be a great reason for a trip to NYC.
Conductors: Valery Gergiev / Pavel Smelkov
Police Inspector: Andrei Popov
The Nose: Gordon Gietz
Kovalyov: Paulo Szot
The premiere will be on 5 March 2010 with performances on 11, 13, 18, 23, &
25 March
Here’s the info from The Met’s site:
The Nose
Opens March 5, 2010
• Artist William Kentridge directs this Met premiere production and co-designs the sets. He defies genres with Dmitri Shostakovich’s adaptation of a story by Nicolai Gogol, in which a man wakes up to discover that his nose has disappeared. Valery Gergiev conducts Tony Award winner Paulo Szot (pictured) as the man searching for his missing bodypart.
• Kentridge on his production: “There’s a mixture of anarchy and the absurd that interests me. I love in this opera the sense that anything is possible.”
• Shostakovich’s highly theatrical score is a pastiche of folk music, popular song, and atonality. The Nose, his first opera, premiered in Leningrad in 1930. After its debut, it was not heard again in the composer’s native country until 1974.
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