The Performed and Unperformed Premieres of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Works at the Bolshoi Theater: from the Late 1920s to the Mid-1940s. Commentaries to the Musical Scores from the Archive of the Musical Library of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia

Abstract

The article presents an overview of the musical sources from the Archive of the Musical Library of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia testifying of the premieres of Dmitri Shostakovich’s compositions written between the late 1920s and the mid-1940s both performed and unperformed on the stage of the theater. Separate sections of the article are devoted to the operas “The Nose” and “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District,” the ballet “The Limpid Stream,” the Seventh Symphony (“Leningrad”) and Modest Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov” orchestrated by Shostakovich. Descriptions of each of the compositions include a complete list of archival sources and the history of the productions at the Bolshoi Theater: the chronology of the work on the operas and their performances, detailed analysis of Shostakovich’s personal proofreading, as well as the conductors’ producers’ and performers’ markings. The article is provided by numerous illustrations from the Archive of the Music Library of the Bolshoi Theater.

Keywords: Shostakovich, Archive of the Musical Library of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, “The Nose”, “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”, the Seventh Symphony (“Leningrad”), Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”, National Anthem of the RSFSR