Milan’s Teatro alla Scala will open its gala season on Sunday with Dmitry Shostakovich’s opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” the second Russian opera staged since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Music director Riccardo Chailly will conduct the performance, which draws cultural and political figures for one of Europe’s most anticipated cultural events.
The 1934 opera, which highlights the condition of women under Stalin’s Soviet Union, was blacklisted after Stalin saw it in 1936. This year, instead of protests against Russian culture, a flash mob organised by the left-wing party +Europa will demonstrate for peace outside the theatre. Due to security concerns, the protest has been moved from the square facing La Scala to another behind City Hall.
La Scala’s new general manager, Fortunato Ortombina, defended the choice of Russian opera, saying, “Music is fundamentally superior to any ideological conflict. Shostakovich, and Russian music more broadly, have an authority over the Russian people that exceeds Putin’s own.” Chailly called the staging “a must,” noting it is only the fourth time the opera has been performed at La Scala.
American soprano Sara Jakubiak makes her La Scala debut in the title role of Katerina, a murderess who dies in a Siberian prison. Jakubiak described the role as challenging, with “47 high B flats in one night.” Stage director Vasily Barkhatov sets the opera in a 1950s cosmopolitan Russian city, focusing on personal tragedy rather than politics. He called the choice of opera “very brave and exciting.”
