EXCLUSIVE: Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: La Scala 2025-26 season opener
With Sara Jakubiak, Alexander Roslavets, Najmiddin Mavlyanov… — Vasily Barkhatov (stage director), Riccardo Chailly (conductor)
Cast
Vasily Barkhatov — Stage director
Zinovy Margolin — Stage sets
Olga Shaishmelashvili — Costumes
Alexander Sivaev — Lighting
Alexander Roslavets — Boris Timofeyevich Izmaylov
Sara Jakubiak — Katerina L’vovna Izmaylova
Najmiddin Mavlyanov — Sergei
Program notes
One of the biggest nights of the year, and one of the few that opera fans can mark on their calendars years in advance, December 7 brings the traditional grand opening of the season at Milan's legendary La Scala! In 2025, 50 years after the death of the great Dmitri Shostakovich, Vasily Barkhatov's staging of the infamous Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk arrives back in Milan with maestro Riccardo Chailly at the podium and an all-star cast onstage, including Sara Jakubiak in the title role of Katerina, Alexander Roslavets as her father-in-law Boris, and Najmiddin Mavlyanov as Katerina's lover Sergei. This extraordinarily intense, darkly humorous, musically and thematically audacious opera met with censure and fear of state retaliation by the Stalin regime when it premiered in 1934, an event that irrevocably changed the course of Shostakovich's career and haunted him for the rest of his life. Restored to its original version only after the composer's death, it is now considered one of the landmarks of 20th-century opera, a masterpiece worthy in every respect of the December 7 marquee at one of opera's most hallowed venues.
Photo © Teatro alla Scala / Brescia & Amisano
