Gogol created the magnificently absurd story in 1835, satirizing the obsession with status in St Petersberg of the time, populating it with a cast of bizarre characters and a riveting plot of towering improbability. The Nose was always a favorite of Russian literature, but not an opera until the very young Dmitri Shostakovitch set its absurdity to music. The Nose was first performed nearly a century later, in 1930.
You can read Gogol’s story here – or view a pinscreen animation here. It finishes wonderfully… "But the most incomprehensible thing of all is, how authors can choose such subjects for their stories. That really surpasses my understanding. In the first place, no advantage results from it for the country; and in the second place, no harm results either."
No harm resulted from Shostakovitch opera either – it was with Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk that Stalin destroyed the composer. Read about his battle with the Stalinist state on our past website here. He got away with the mockery of absurd (supposedly Tsarist) state control in The Nose, but it was denounced as formalist. The opera was forgotten, refused by Bolshoi, and produced – for the first time since 1930, with Shostakovitch present - by the small chamber opera company in the delightful, intimate, mad-realistic production we will watch.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Iron Curtain - and long after it was raised – the opera was discovered by innovative directors and producers at the top opera houses. We’ll compare the small-house, low tech Russian performance which the composer attended in 1979 with two recent high profile, high tech and highly innovative productions. The Met brought William Kentridge to the task, and Royal Opera House brought our own Barrie Kosky (whose production made it with OA to Sydney last year but of course not Melbourne.)
Here’s Kentridge –brilliant South African director – on his approach to Gogol’s “brutal comedy” about disintegration.
Here’s his response to the marvellous mad music. Check out the trailer for the Met production here. Here’s what the NYTimes thought. Interesting commentary here. (And to get a feel for Kentridge, try this gem of a self interview!)
Now have a look at the publicity for the ROH production. Here’s Barrie Kosky on his selection of the opera for his ROH debut – and his conception of the chaotic comedy.
The ROH trailer, interestingly with no images from the production, is here. A more detailed background video is here. Limelight offers a detailed account of the production – the reviewer approved wildly.
There are many videos of this production, significantly most often of the famous tapdancing noses (not in Shostakovich’s opera at all) - which also featured throughout the AO season.
