The Gamblers (Shostakovich)

Template:Shostakovich operas

The Gamblers, Op. 63 (1941-42; Igroki), is an unfinished opera by Dmitri Shostakovich to his own libretto based on Nikolai Gogol's comedy The Gamblers (1842). The surviving first act lasts around 47 minutes.

Shostakovich, who was trying to set every word of Gogol's play, abandoned the opera as too long and unwieldy.^[1] He returned to the work towards the end of his life, reusing material from the overture in the scherzo of the sonata for viola and piano (1975).^[2]

Meyer completion

The opera was completed by Krzysztof Meyer as Die Spieler premiered in Leningrad 1978.^[3]

Recordings

Shostakovich The Gamblers, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, cond. Andrei Chistyakov
Shostakovich The Gamblers, with the same composer's The Nose, cond. Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Shostakovich The Gamblers; with Veniamin Fleishman's Rothschild's Violin. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko 2008
Shostakovich/Meyer Die Spieler (completion) Michail Jurowski, Capriccio Records

References

^ Bartlett, Rosamund (2008). Fairclough, Pauline; Fanning, David (eds.). Shostakovich as Opera Composer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 192. ISBN 9780521603157. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ Macdonald, Malcolm (2008). Fairclough, Pauline; Fanning, David (eds.). 'I Took a Simple Little Theme and Developed it': Shostakovich's String Concertos and Sonatas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0521603157. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ Franklin Mesa, Opera: An Encyclopedia of World Premieres and Significant ... 1476605378, 2007: "Composer: Shostakovich, Dmitri Dmitriyevich (1906–75). Composed 1941–2; incomplete. Completed by Krzysztof Meyer as Die Spieler. Librettist: Based on the play (1842) by Nikolay Vasil'yevich Gogol (1809–52). World Premiere: Leningrad 1978."

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[1] Bartlett, Rosamund (2008). Fairclough, Pauline; Fanning, David (eds.). Shostakovich as Opera Composer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 192. ISBN 9780521603157. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

[2] Macdonald, Malcolm (2008). Fairclough, Pauline; Fanning, David (eds.). 'I Took a Simple Little Theme and Developed it': Shostakovich's String Concertos and Sonatas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0521603157. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

[3] Franklin Mesa, Opera: An Encyclopedia of World Premieres and Significant ... 1476605378, 2007: "Composer: Shostakovich, Dmitri Dmitriyevich (1906–75). Composed 1941–2; incomplete. Completed by Krzysztof Meyer as Die Spieler. Librettist: Based on the play (1842) by Nikolay Vasil'yevich Gogol (1809–52). World Premiere: Leningrad 1978."

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