Shostakovich - Katerina Izmailova
by Mikhail Shapiro
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Aleksandr Sokolov, Artyom Inozemtsev, Galina Vishnevskaya, Konstantin Simeonov, Nikolai BoyarskyDirector: Mikhail Shapiro
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Russian (Original Language), PCM Stereo; Russian (Published), PCM Stereo; English (Published); French (Published); German (Published); Spanish (Published); Italian (Published); Mandarin Chinese (Published)
Format: Anamorphic, Classical, Color, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 2.20:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-01-09
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Decca
Movie Reviews of Shostakovich - Katerina Izmailova
Movie Review: Breathtaking Vishnevskaya
Summary: 5 Stars
Here we have what may prove to be one of the most outstanding opera films of all time - if you can tolerate the grating and tortured music of Shostakovich's most successful opera. The history of Katerina Izmailova reflects the agonized life of its great composer and his difficult, uncertain existence during Stalin's Reign of Terror. The opera was first suppressed then revised in order to accommodate the opinions of the Soviet dictatorship.
Criticized by Stalin as "muddle, not music", the opera - originally called Lady Macbeth of Mstensk - was banned after its initial spectacular success. Its composer lived an insecure and anxietous existence amidst the ubiquitous threat of imminent torture and death shared by so many millions during Stalin's era. The dictator's disapproval meant potential disaster at any moment for those unfortunate victims of his disfavor. And so traumatized was he by Stalin's criticism, Shostakovich never wrote another opera.
In the 1960's, after the thaw that followed Stalin's death in 1953, it was decided to make a film of this operatic masterpiece. Galina Vishnevskaya was asked to star in this production, and fortunately for us, we are able to experience her in all her ravishing glory.
Here is one of our only opportunities to witness the unique art of Vishnevskaya. She was a magnificent woman and artist, who so threatened the Soviet power structure with her independence and outspokenness that nearly all traces of her were erased following her forced exile from the USSR. This suppression and obliteration of her work occurred in spite of the fact that she had been one of the Bolshoi's greatest stars.
She and her husband, the famed cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, were close to Shostakovich, and this revised version of Katerina Izmailova was written with Vishnevskaya in mind. She sings with a unique sound - very Russian and very dramatic. She is the only person in this film who sings as well as acts. Her performance of the bored, frustrated housewife is terrifying in its intensity. The last scenes of the opera are hair-raising with their high-pitched ferocity.
The story line is this: Katerina is an illiterate but beautiful and passionate woman married to an impotent, wealthy merchant whose lecherous father would like a go at her, but his advanced age interferes with his ability to take action. Her life is empty until a handsome and literate worker comes along and adds the very spice her life is missing. They kill her husband and father-in-law, marry, but get caught by the police and sent to a penal colony in the wastelands of Siberia.
During this endless and brutal journey to prison, her lover Sergei becomes bored with her and takes up with another woman. In the end, Katerina kills her too. She grabs her rival and jumps overboard into the icy waters that carry their prison ship to its final destination, dragging them both to their death.
In her autobiography, Vishnevskaya relays interesting facts about the making of this film. She had to wear thick, woolen pants under the blankets during the bedroom scene so that the prim Soviet audience wouldn't be horrified that a married woman would allow a man's body to touch hers. While the camera never shows her in these heavy pants (she's always dressed beautifully) we assume the crew would have spread gossip about her and ruined her name. She also had to retake her final scene in the frigid waters, with frogmen on rafts nearby in case hypothermia overtook her.
Galina Vishnevskaya was a unique phenomenon in her day. A contemporary of Maria Callas, she too was a great and glamorous singing actress, but she was the intellectual that Callas was not. She lived amid the Russian intelligentsia and wrote an autobiography that is an outstanding literary work. Galina: A Russian Story
It's a pity that we don't have more footage of her sensational acting and singing. Two other videos preserve her art. A clip of her as Lisa from Pique Dame can be relished on "Russian Opera at the Bolshoi". Russian Opera at the Bolshoi / Chaliapin, Kozlovsky, Vishevskaya And there is a brief and priceless scene from Aida on the DVD "The Great Singers of Russia, vol. 2", where Vishnevksaya's beauty, acting and vocal talents can make one cry over the loss of performance footage caused by an ignorant and short-lived tyrannical government. Great Singers of Russia, Vol 2 - Petrov, Andzhaparidze, Arkhipova, Vishnevskaya, Mazurok, Rudenko, Nesterenko, Obraztsova, Atlantov, Kasrashvili, Borodina, Hvorostovsky, Kazarnovskaya
Summary of Shostakovich - Katerina Izmailova
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