The Nose (opera)
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219930660
2008-06-17T14:35:39Z
Viva-Verdi
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Writing in complete sentences.....
[[Image:Dmitri1.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer of ''The Nose'']]
'''''The Nose''''' ({{lang-ru|''Нос''}}, ''Nos'' in [[transliteration]]) is a [[satire|satirical]] [[opera]] by [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] to a Russian [[libretto]] by the composer and [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]], [[Georgy Ionin]], [[Alexander Preis]], based on a story with the [[The Nose|same name]] by [[Nikolai Gogol]]. The opera was given its first performance at the [[Mikhailovsky_Theatre|Maly Operny Theatre]] in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] on [[18 June]] [[1930]].
The opera tells the story of a [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]] official whose [[nose]] leaves his face and develops a life of its own. It was written between [[1927]] and [[1928]]. In 1929, the opera was criticised as "[[Russian Formalism|formalist]]" by [[RAPM]], and it opened to generally poor reviews. After sixteen performances, it was not performed again in the Soviet Union until [[1974]], when it was revived by [[Gennady Rozhdestvensky]] and [[Boris Pokrovsky]].
The music is a [[Musical montage|montage]] of different styles, including [[folk music]], [[popular song]] and [[atonality]]. The apparent chaos is given structure by formal musical devices such as [[canon (music)|canon]]s and [[quartet]]s, a device copied from [[Alban Berg]]'s ''[[Wozzeck]]''.
==Synopsis==
===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|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 him and refuses to return to his face.
===Act 2===
Kovalyov visits the newspaper office to place an advert 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 the nose. He suspects that he has been enchanted by a woman called 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]].
==Sources==
* {{cite book |last=Frolova-Walker|first=Marina|editor=Mervyn Cooke|title=The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=London|language=English|isbn=0-521-78393-3|pages=p.182-186|chapter=11. Russian opera; Two anti-operas: ''The Love for Three Oranges'' and ''The Nose''}}
==See also==
*[[The Nose]]
*[[Dmitri Shostakovich]]
*[[Nikolai Gogol]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nose}}
[[Category:Nikolai Gogol]]
[[Category:Operas by Dmitri Shostakovich]]
[[Category:Russian-language operas]]
[[Category:1930 operas]]
[[Category:Operas]]
[[fr:Le Nez (opéra)]]
[[ja:鼻 (オペラ)]]
[[simple:The Nose (opera)]]
[[fi:Nenä (ooppera)]]
[[nl:De Neus (Sjostakovitsj)]]