La Scala opens season with Shostakovich Opera
La Scala in Milan opened its 2025–26 season with Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” on Sunday, a Russian opera highlighting women’s rights that was once banned in the Soviet Union.
The opera, staged 50 years after Shostakovich’s death, tells the story of Katerina, a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage who kills her husband and father-in-law with her lover, is sent to Siberia, and ultimately commits suicide, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Director Vasily Barkhatov emphasized that cultural work and politics should remain separate, while the urban 1950s Moscow setting updates the original 19th-century Russian countryside backdrop.
The sold-out performance attracted 2,000 attendees, with tickets up to 3,200 euros, generating record revenue. The production runs at La Scala until December 30, marking the first season under new artistic director Fortunato Ortombina.
Principal conductor Riccardo Chailly called the opening a tribute to a 20th-century giant and an opera that “suffered for far too many years.”
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