I can agree with the laudatory review by Olaf Mahlkow without limitation. This opera, which has composed Shostakovich aged only 22 years (!), Is one of the hardest and at the same time magnificent, what the music of the 20th century has produced. Unfortunately, there is a reason for serious action. Because the libretto offers in addition to the Russian text only have an English translation, but also a German would not help much, because the Russian text is written in Cyrillic and in the furious pace of the Opera and the fullness of the characters - about 85! - Is extremely difficult, especially if you can not speak Russian to follow the action. It is easier when the Russian text had been written in Latin characters, so you could find at least phonetically, where you are just would. Ideally, a DVD would released with subtitles from this performance Petersburg would. (Whether one would read along with the zurande, though still remains the question. Since the reading text would probably be considerably limited.) Hermann Narrowest Göttingen
