Summary: This month we bring to you the Award Winning lost recording of the satirical opera “The Nose” composed by Dmitri Shostakovich. The plot of this opera concerns a St. Petersburg official who loses his nose due to his drunken barber giving him a shave. Of course, the nose develops a life of its own. According to British composer Gerard McBurney, “The Nose” is one of the young Shostakovich’s greatest masterpieces, an electrifying tour de force of vocal acrobatics, wild instrumental colors and theatrical absurdity, all shot through with a blistering mixture of laughter and rage. The result is an operatic version in the style of Charlie Chaplin or Monty Python despite its magnificently absurd subject matter. This Lost Recording is the World Premiere of this opera performed by the Moscow Chamber Opera Company conducted by Gennandy Rozhdestvensky. This digitized recording, by Classical Music Discoveries, is mastered from the 1975 Melodiya Master Recording. Act 1 The morning after shaving Kovalyov, one of his regular customers, a barber finds a nose in his bread. He tries to get rid of it by throwing it in the Neva River, but he is caught by a police officer. Meanwhile Kovalyov wakes and finds his nose missing. He later sees his nose in the Kazan Cathedral, but it has acquired a higher rank than he and refuses to return to his face. Act 2 Kovalyov visits the newspaper office to place an advertisement about the loss of his nose, but is refused. He returns to his flat, where his servant sings a love song and Kovalyov is left in despair. Act 3 A group of policemen are at a coach station, in order to prevent the nose from escaping. The nose tries to get on the coach at the last minute: the horse is frightened and runs away, while the driver tries to shoot the nose. The nose is caught, beaten and returned to Kovalyov; however, he is unable to reattach it. He suspects that he has been enchanted by a woman called Madame Podtochina, because he would not marry her daughter. He writes to ask her to undo the spell, but she misinterprets the letter as a proposal to her daughter. She convinces him that she is innocent. In the city, crowds gather in search of the nose. Epilogue Kovalyov wakes up with his nose reattached. He is shaved by the barber and flirts as he walks along Nevsky Prospekt. Order you CDs below or purchase a digital only copy - Format (price includes shipping) USA Purchase CD $20.00 USD International Purchase CD $30.00 USD Digital Download only $10.00 USD
