On 26 September 2024, the Gran Teatre del Liceu opened its 2024/25 season with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, conducted by Josep Pons in a new production by Àlex Ollé of La Fura dels Baus. The opera returned to the Liceu almost twenty years after its previous staging, opening the season with one of the twentieth century’s most powerful masterpieces.
First performed in 1934, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, based on the novella by Nikolai Leskov, tells the story of Katerina Ismailova, a woman trapped in an oppressive society whose desperate search for freedom leads to violence and tragedy. Shortly after its premiere, the work was famously condemned by Stalin and withdrawn from the Soviet stage for many years.
Àlex Ollé’s production relocated the action to a contemporary industrial environment, highlighting the opera’s themes of social oppression, structural violence and dehumanisation. Monumental scenery, multimedia projections and a highly physical theatrical language reinforced the psychological intensity of the drama.
The cast featured Aušrinė Stundytė in the title role, alongside John Daszak, Dmitry Ulyanov, Alexander Vinogradov, Sara Blanch, Mikeldi Atxalandabaso and the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, prepared by Pablo Assante.
Josep Pons approached one of the twentieth century’s most demanding operatic scores, balancing Shostakovich’s explosive orchestral writing with its moments of lyrical intimacy and extraordinary refinement. Critics praised both the orchestra’s performance and the clarity, energy and dramatic control of the musical direction.