Think about the opera as an adaptation of the story — Shostakovich not only translated from text to music to the stage, but also shifted the political context from the czarist bureaucracy to the early Communist period. What does that help you see?
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Adaptation of Gogol’s “The Nose” into an opera by Shostakovich wasn’t very appealing to me as a whole work of art. It was much better as a short story. Stretching the story to that extent made it spiritless. I just couldn’t wait for it to finish. Except for the occasional funny parts of the story, animation and acting, it made no attempt at actually entertaining the audience. While it is true that Shostakovich had to replace the incredibly funny and witty “narrator” of the story with animation and music, the production didn’t add anything to the story in a good a sense. Though the music should have been the main replacement of the narrator of the story, it was either silent and ineffective or sidelined and in some cases, completely covered by the animation in expressing the message of the story. Though I did not like the opera as a whole, I liked various parts of the production. The animation was beautifully done and expressed much more about the intention and message of Gogol and Shostakovich. The use of the color Red in different parts and ways allowed me to understand that Shostakovich has moved the political context from the Czarist bureaucracy to the early Communist period. Gogol was commenting on the problematic and ineffective nature of the big bureaucracy of the Czarist period. He made fun of the bureaucracy through the problems encountered by different bureaucratic characters and the response of the police, people and other bureaucrats to these imaginary problems. The difference and lack of communication between the various levels of the huge bureaucracy was also shown. Shostakovich did a similar thing, only replacing the Czarists with Communists. He portrayed the communist philosophy and government as very big and strong, but ineffective. This is a good move, considering the fact that many in the audience probably had experience of the outline and effect of communism. The communist movement is a much newer part of history compared to the time of the Czars. As it is more relatable for the audience, the message would have a much stronger effect on the audience which was the case for me. It also showed that the same problem can exist in various types of government and some stories are always ready to present these problems to the public. It was one of the things about this opera that I liked.
Adaptation of Gogol’s “The Nose” into an opera by Shostakovich wasn’t very appealing to me as a whole work of art. It was much better as a short story. Stretching the story to that extent made it spiritless. I just couldn’t wait for it to finish. Except for the occasional funny parts of the story, animation and acting, it made no attempt at actually entertaining the audience. While it is true that Shostakovich had to replace the incredibly funny and witty “narrator” of the story with animation and music, the production didn’t add anything to the story in a good a sense. Though the music should have been the main replacement of the narrator of the story, it was either silent and ineffective or sidelined and in some cases, completely covered by the animation in expressing the message of the story. Though I did not like the opera as a whole, I liked various parts of the production. The animation was beautifully done and expressed much more about the intention and message of Gogol and Shostakovich. The use of the color Red in different parts and ways allowed me to understand that Shostakovich has moved the political context from the Czarist bureaucracy to the early Communist period. Gogol was commenting on the problematic and ineffective nature of the big bureaucracy of the Czarist period. He made fun of the bureaucracy through the problems encountered by different bureaucratic characters and the response of the police, people and other bureaucrats to these imaginary problems. The difference and lack of communication between the various levels of the huge bureaucracy was also shown. Shostakovich did a similar thing, only replacing the Czarists with Communists. He portrayed the communist philosophy and government as very big and strong, but ineffective. This is a good move, considering the fact that many in the audience probably had experience of the outline and effect of communism. The communist movement is a much newer part of history compared to the time of the Czars. As it is more relatable for the audience, the message would have a much stronger effect on the audience which was the case for me. It also showed that the same problem can exist in various types of government and some stories are always ready to present these problems to the public. It was one of the things about this opera that I liked.
Double Post! My Bad.
Like Ahmed, I enjoyed the original story much more than I enjoyed the opera. While reading, I was entertained by the story and went through it rather quickly. The opera, on the other hand, seemed more dragging and endless. The production of it was beyond beautiful and well done. Perhaps it was that nicely crafted production that made the opera seem lengthy because it was a distraction to the storyline as a whole. The plot “drowned” within the animations and effects. Overall I did like the storyline and it’s witty message. It was the way that it was presented in the opera that I disliked. In fact, as a person who likes seeing written texts being acted out, I was very excited for this play but ended up a bit disappointed. Like Ahmed, I noticed certain components like the color red and picked up the Communist setting. One of the things I enjoyed was the sarcastic mockery of the government officials of that time. I felt the switch from czarist bureaucracy to early Communist period helped me see how unproductive and rather senseless the Communist officials are. That of course added to the humor of the opera as a whole. Although I personally did not catch this, I agree with Ahmed’s point that Communism is newer and more understandable for the audience. The switch of governments also gave a practical comparison between the two types and the similar problems.
Dmitri Shostakovich wrote “The Nose” in 1927 during the Communist era of Russian history. Given the time period that this opera was written and presented, it became more understandable as to why Shostakovich chooses to change Gogol’s storyline and make it overly humorous. Russia after 1917 was completely unlike the czarist Russia. Everything, from books and performances to daily living were under the watchful eye of the Communist government. Works that contain negative innuendoes about the government were immediately censored and the authors of these works were imprisoned or sometimes killed as punishment. Gogol’s “The Nose” was written with a lot of criticisms on the high-rank social classmen of the czarist bureaucracy. Had such messages been relayed into the opera adaptation, it would insinuate negative remarks about the Russian government of the 21st century. Shostakovich henceforth had to modify the plot a bit to make it appeal to the Communist government. Watching the opera adaptation, I noticed that the costumes, while were based on the fashion style of the mid 19th century, also had Communist style in some of the characters, in particular the policemen. Their costumes, the coats, hat, and boots, had the style of that of the uniforms of the Communist soldiers/officials. I couldn’t help but also notice, along with Ahmed and Ann, that Shostakovich incorporated the color red in certain parts of the play, which is still the color for Communism. I have to admit that this particular adaptation was not my cup of tea. I felt that the music was lost in the opera due to the overly done humor. There was no trace of Gogol in the adaptation as well, which took away the depth of the story that Gogol had intended. On the bright side, I thought the actors/singers did a great job portraying Shostakovich’s adaptation, as some of the acts were funny and entertaining.
I found Shostakovich’s adaptation of “The Nose” quite absurd, perhaps more absurd than the story itself. For me, the production seemed to over-exaggerate Gogol’s story a bit. Perhaps the lack of emotion in the opera was due to the fact that Shostacovich used a Communist theme.
Why is there a Communist theme in this story? Maybe Shostakovich was trying to make us see that there is still a social hierarchy between the Communist officials and the common man, or perhaps he was trying to underscore the many difficulties of a new communist society, as the social differences between the characters were still present even under communism.
Agreeing with both Ann and Ahmed, I also believe that the concept of The Nose as an opera did not give Gogol’s original story justice.
The actors gave the entire story a parodic feel instead of the cleverness the narrator relayed to the readers. Major Kovalyov was mindless and blubbering on while in the original story he seemed to have more intellect. I also expected to see the actual nose wearing the official’s coat and to have more of a role in the opera in general other than mostly being a 2-D animation. Shostakovich’s music, on the other hand, was drowned out and seemed inexistent. It didn’t give the audience much to work with in terms of replacing the narrator. I was actually reminded by reading the other posts that it was even there at all.
On a better note, the set work and animations were definitely a pleasure to look at. The use of the newspaper pages as a backdrop and the excessive use of the color red definitely gave the impression of the Communist period that both Gogol and Shostakovich intended. The use of the animations was very creative in giving the opera a more artistic side, even if they were a bit overbearing at times because of the already decorative background.
The use of satire as a form of criticism is safer than direct attacks– especially when it is directed towards a powerful government or the way that a society is structured as a whole. Shostakovich understood this well when he interpreted Gogol’s “The Nose” into a composition during the Communist regime in Russia. Although the messages of anti-bureaucratic nature were similar, Shostakovich’s adaptation helps us see the importance of rank in Russian Communist society and also demonstrated a lack of nobility amongst the Russian police (exemplified by the officer’s bribe and by their harassment of the pretzel woman on the ship). Shostakovich’s adaptation included a lot of RED– the color of Communism. There were Communist flags and red clothing all about the scenes and there were even moments that displayed sketches of Stalin onto the vertical stage. Although the center of the satire is focused on Russian bureaucrats (both in Gogol’s and Shostakovich’s versions), Shostakovich made it clear that he was zooming in on Stalin’s regime in Communist Russia with the use of red, sketches of Stalin, and portrayals of Russian officers and officials as sloppy, ineffective and of little nobility. He used music to point out subliminal messages in the dialogue.
Being familiar with the time period in which Shostakovich adapted Gogol’s “The Nose” can help us see why he made many of the changes that he did. I do like the original written work better because I thought the story works better with the satire, which is not as obvious in the opera. However, Shostakovich had to leave out the criticism and satire. During Shostakovich’s time, the people were under strict governmental censure. They were watched very carefully, and mistakes had dire consequences. Therefore, he had to make the opera a strictly comedic one. He made the opera because he was still critical of the government, but he had to make sure that his feelings were not obvious. The criticism that he was trying to convey was the same as Gogol’s, which was ridicule of the bureaucracy, as well as Shostakovich’s added criticism of the police.