Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk District (1936)
Music: Dmitrii Shostakovich
Description: Shostakovich's four-act opera opened to great success, official and popular, in 1934. He used elements of musical expressionism to capture the tempestuous affair of the heroine of Nikolai Leskov's story. Shostakovich's success was abruptly halted in 1936 by the official condemnation published in PRAVDA.