Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

It has been often said that Alexander Pushkin was one of the most influential Russian writers in his era and many Russian writers were inspired by him. In Alexander Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades” and Nikolai Leskov’s “The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” there are strikingly clear similarities and contrasts between the characters, theme and plot construction, which shows the direct influence of Pushkin on Leskov’s writing while still illustrated Leskov’s own literary voice. The two main characters within

Dmitri Shostakovich is a renowned Russian composer who was born on September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia. He father Dmitri Boleslavovich, was a chemical engineer and his mother Sofia Kokaoulin was a pianist. They had two daughters and Dmitri was the middle child. Dmitri was exposed to music at an early age. Dmitri Shostakovich’s his talent as a pianist and a composer were seen at an early age, it was predicted that he would be a great composer. He started composing short pieces in 1917. Dmitri’s

wrote in their guidelines that, “The main attention of the Soviet composer must be directed towards the victorious progressive principles of reality, towards all that is heroic, bright, and beautiful.” In 1934, Shostakovich’s opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District was performed. Although it was well-received initially, Stalin decided that it was dangerous and had themes of a “pre-socialist, petty-bourgeois, Russian mentality” that the communist party found dangerous (Anderson 977). It may have

1906. He was a very talented young man and entered the Petrograd Conservatory, a famous music school, at the age of thirteen (McBurney). In his youth, he created three ballets and two famous operas. He produced The Nose (1928) and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1932), both were satirical operas. One of his first works, and one of the most famous, was Symphony

Shostakovich is a Russian-born composer. He grew up in Russia, where he was recognized as a child prodigy, and sent to work at the Petrograd Conservatory. When Shostakovich was in his early composing years he composed, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (based off a novella of the same name by Nikolai Leskov). The opera was well received by the public during its two-year running time. During its second year, Stalin, having taken an interest in Russian opera, went to see a production

How Social Change influenced Russian Music of the Twentieth Century Joseph Stalin’s authoritarian state and World War II were the two major social changes during the Twentieth century. Joseph Stalin’s policies centered on inflicting fear upon his own citizens, to instill greater control over Soviet Russia. Through the great purges, Stalin was able to assume complete power over his people. His regime’s policies greatly affected Russian music of the Twentieth century. Centralised control of art, paired

In the year 1922, after a long and bloody civil war, the Soviet Union was officially formed. After World War II, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, established itself as one of the world’s superpowers, opposite of the United States of America. The Communist regime reigned over the Soviet Union until 1990, shortly before the Soviet Union collapsed and was formally dissolved in December of 1991. However, during that reign, many rules and regulations were imposed on all aspects of life,

Soviet Russia was a uniquely difficult culture for artists to not only thrive in, but to survive in as well. The Soviet Era marked one of the few times in history that artists were judged primarily on how well they matched the party’s agenda, rather than on their artistic achievements. Music, for the most part, was not banned entirely, but converted into a propagandist tool used by the government to encourage optimistic feelings toward its own policies. However, musicians who created works that

Russian Opera The seeds of a distinctively national art music in Russia are usually dated from the first half of the 19th century. The performance of the opera A Life for the Tsar (1836), by Mikhail GLINKA, is usually cited as the turning point for Russian music (Russia's national anthem is taken from this opera). In this historical opera, as well as in his subsequent opera Ruslan and Ludmila (1842), the orchestral fantasy Kamarinskaya (1848), and numerous songs, Glinka successfully fused

Essay B One of the most prominent influences of art throughout history has been politics. The 50s through 70s in America are a great example of this, for so many of this era’s songs were arguments against America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and criticisms of American politics at the time. However, this phenomenon was prominent long before the Vietnam War and was not just an American trend; in fact, two of the most influential and famous pieces of the early 20th century were products of political