Name: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk - Opera by D. Shostakovich
Start: 2026-10-04T18:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-10-04T21:05:00+02:00
Location: Prague State Opera
Rating: 4

Date:	October 04, 2026 \| 18:00 (Sun)
Venue:	Prague State Opera
Duration:	approx. 4 hours
Intermission:	Yes (20 minutes)
Status:	Available
Reviews:	(4)

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Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: Dmitri Shostakovich's opera, a satirical tragedy

In Russian, surtitles in Czech, English

The Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich set Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk to a libretto he wrote together with Alexander Preis after the eponymous novella by Nikolai Leskov. He himself referred to the opera as a satirical tragedy. The main character, Katerina, is a murderess haunted by qualms of conscience. Yet, with a touch of bitter humour, Shostakovich also focuses on the moral decay of the inhabitants of a Russian village, revealing the omnipresent torpidity and recklessness. Life without hope and love is the very reason for the heroine’s downfall.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk premiered to great acclaim in 1934 at the Small Opera Theatre in Leningrad (today St Petersburg). Yet it would only enjoy general popularity in Russia until January 1936, when Joseph Stalin attended a performance at the Bolshoi in Moscow, following which the official Communist Party newspaper Pravda condemned the piece in the infamous article titled “Muddle instead of music”. Subsequently, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk had to be withdrawn from the repertoire of theatres throughout the Soviet Union. (By the way, it was also banned in Nazi Germany.)

On the very day when Stalin saw the production in Moscow, the opera received its premiere, for the very first time in German translation, at the Neues deutsches Theater (now the State Opera) in Prague, conducted by Georg Széll and staged by Renato Mordo. Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was prohibited in Russia until 1963, when its revised version, Katerina Izmailova, was first performed in Moscow.

After the composer’s death, the majority of opera houses worldwide returned to the original version, which is also the case of the new production to be presented at the State Opera.

Performing:

State Opera Chorus
State Opera Orchestra
National Theatre Opera Ballet

Important:

Purchased tickets cannot be returned or exchanged.
No discounts are provided.
Theatre is a cultural institution. Please respect the common principles of appropriate behaviour and clothing.
The program may be subject to change.
The price includes service fee of 3,7 € (100,- CZK)

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Prague State Opera

Address:	Wilsonova 4 , Praha 1
Capacity:	989
Type:	Theatre
Winter heating:	Yes
Wheelchair access:	Yes

Prague State Opera is one of the most important music scenes in Europe & one of the stages of The National Theatre

Visit the recently re-opened and newly refurbished grand opera house with a noteworthy history where many world renown artists have worked here making each performance a prime cultural event.

History:

This Neo-classical edifice was built in 1883 by the German Theatre Association as a reaction of German minority in Prague to the opening of the Prague National Theatre. As the New German Theatre it soon gained international acclaim for its inovative repertoire and artistic leadership including such names as Angelo Neumann, Alexander Zemlinski or Georg Szell.

Nowadays, famous operas, as well as pieces unjustly overlooked or unknown in the Czech Republic are introduced in the State Opera gaining the theatre a reputation of one of the best European scenes where you can enjoy watching mainly opera and ballet performances.

How to get there:

Accessibility by public transport:
metro A (green line) or C (red line) - Muzeum station
Nearest car parking:
Garage Museum, Wilsonova 732/6, Prague 1

Please note:

There is a screen with subtitles in each seat

Overall rating:

Leslie Howe | October 23, 2024 | 19:00 (Wed)

Excellent production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk which is a very difficult to pull off.

Juraj Halaj | October 06, 2024 | 17:00 (Sun)

Horrific theatrical adaptation and choreography. Unnecessarily politicized. A large number of people left after the intermission. I was hoping to enjoy this with my family but we left deeply disappointed.

VERONIQUE JOUBERT | December 17, 2023 | 19:00 (Sun)

Très bel établissement Pièce et opéra très bien joués 1 remarque : pas assez de chauffage dans la salle Nous avons eu froid la première partie

Magdalene Blincoe-Deval | December 02, 2023 | 19:00 (Sat)

I really enjoyed the opera. The staging was incredible, stunning singing and wonderfully performed music. I really loved the interpretation.

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