The nose know what the nose knows
Jimmy Durante

Dmitri Shostakovich’s first opera, The Nose, was telecast today. Written when the composer was 21 years old. It is an extraordinary work that can only make its point when seen.  It’s a tour de force heavily influenced by Berg’s Wozzeck.  It is a combination of Arnold Schoenberg and Charlie Chaplin with everything an opera orchestra and a stage can do also added to the goulash. Anyone listening to it who has not seen it performed will be mystified and/or bored. Its performance history also seems mysterious to both the author of the Wikipedia article on the work as well as the Met’s General Manager, Peter Gelb. Both seem unaware the the opera was staged in the US in 1965 and 1987 by the Santa Fe Opera. Gelb in the pre-show interview of director William Kentridge described how he had to go to Saint Petersburg to find traces of the opera.

This run of The Nose is a revival of Kentridge’s 2010 production which was the first time the Met had done the opera. The reasons that 20th century’s greatest composer’s brilliant first opera is not performed often are several. First it requires an enormous cast (see the list below). It’s extremely difficult to stage as the composer intended. It’s too long, even though it’s not a long opera. (The Met did it without an intermission.) It’s mainly based on a short story by Gogol and there’s really not enough material for a full length opera. It’s a satire. Satire in opera works only if there’s at least one character that is sympathetic or close to normal. Opera’s greatest satirist, Rossini, always observed this practice – even in his wackiest operas. In Rossini comedies it’s usually the prima donna who’s not nuts. In The Nose everyone is a caricature or a weirdo. In Wozzeck (not a satire but an opera about lunatics) Marie engages our sympathy. Here, no one. Thus, this opera is a sensational failure, worth seeing every so often,especially when so brilliantly mounted as in the Met’s production.

The Nose act 3

The opera was written during the brief period of artistic liberty that occurred in Russia as Stalin was consolidating his position as autocratic monster. This tolerance explains the satire of officials, society, and just about every part of Russian life. It obviously couldn’t last and, of course, was soon gone. Had this opera been written a few years latter it would have met the same fate as the composer’s second opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The latter almost resulted in Shostakovich’s death. Stalin considered himself a superb music critic. His favorite opera was Boris Godunov; how’s that for macabre irony? Lady Macbeth was a huge hit until Stalin saw it. Poof it was gone as was it’s composer’s spirit. He never fully recovered from Stalin’s gut shot and never wrote another opera. So among the endless list of Stalin’s crimes is the assassination 20th century opera.

Paulo Szot

Kentridge makes extensive use of projections, animations, and titles in both Russian and English which accentuate the manic action. He also places the action in various parts of the stage – front and back, up and down. Some of these effects were lost by Gary Halvorson’s close-ups; but his direction was, in the main, very effective.

As the man who lost his nose, Brazilian singer Paulo Szot was near perfect both vocally and as an actor. Szot is well known to New York audiences for his Tony award performance in the 2008 revival of South Pacific; but he’s an opera singer and it shows in this production. Despite repeated references to Kovalyov’s noseless face, Mr Szot made no attempt to hide his schnoz. He must have been thinking of Jimmy Durante’s proverb. Nose or no nose his was a first rate performance.

Andrey Popov was suitably crazed as the Police Inspector. I’m not sure if some of the sounds he made at the top of his range were intended or the result of vocal strain. The part is so manically written that it’s hard to tell what’s really in the score without having it in front of you.

The rest of the cast was appropriately lunatic and agitated as needed. As you can see below, there are too many of them for me to fully acknowledge without making this piece as long as the opera. The orchestra has as important a part as the singers. Valery Gergiev conducted the 2010 production. For this run Pavel Smelkov was behind the baton, or would have been had he used one. Despite the absence of a stick the Met’s wonderful orchestra delivered a powerful reading of a score that matches Shostakovich’s most richly orchestrated symphony.

In summary, The Nose is one of the most remarkable achievements in 20th century opera. That it doesn’t quite meet its composer’s expectations does not lessen its worth. No other 20th century composer could have failed at this high a level and at 21! If you missed the telecast catch the rerun. An interesting sidebar is that the audience in the opera house seemed younger than the usual gray crowd.

Kovalyov……………….Paulo Szot
Police Inspector………..Andrey Popov
The Nose……………….Alexander Lewis
Ivan Yakovlevich………..Vladimir Ognovenko
Praskovya Osipovna………Claudia Waite
Constable………………Grigory Soloviov
Female Voice……………Ying Fang
Male Voice……………..Tony Stevenson
Footman………………..Brian Kontes
Porter…………………Sergei Skorokhodov
A Cabby………………..Gennady Bezzubenkov
Newspaper Clerk…………James Courtney
Countess’s Footman………Ricardo Lugo
Caretakers……………..Brian Kontes, Kevin Burdette, Matt Boehler, Joseph Barron, Grigory Soloviov, Philip
Cokorinos, Kevin Glavin, Christopher Job
Policemen. …………….Brian Kontes, Sergei Skorokhodov, Kevin Burdette, Matt Boehler, Michael Myers, Joseph
Barron, Brian Frutiger, Tony Stevenson, Jeffrey Behrens, Grigory Soloviov
Father…………………Philip Cokorinos
Mother…………………Maria Gavrilova
Sons…………………..Michael Forest, Christopher Job
Pyotr Fedorovitch……….Todd Wilander
Ivan Ivanovitch…………Ricardo Lugo
Matron…………………Theodora Hanslowe
Pretzel Vendor………….Claudia Waite
Coachman……………….Kevin Glavin
Doctor…………………Gennady Bezzubenkov
Yaryzhkin………………Adam Klein
Podtochina’s daughter……Ying Fang
Mme. Podtochina…………Barbara Dever
Gentlemen………………Sergei Skorokhodov, Michael Myers, Brian Frutiger, Brian Kontes, Kevin Burdette,
Joseph Barron, Tony Stevenson
Old Man………………..Jeffrey Behrens
Newcomers………………Grigory Soloviov, Michael Forest
Black Marketeer…………Matt Boehler
Distinguished Colonel……Todd Wilander
Dandys…………………Philip Cokorinos, Michael Myers
Someone………………..Kevin Glavin
Students……………….Sergei Skorokhodov, Brian Frutiger, Joseph Barron, Christopher Job, Tony Stevenson,
Jeffrey Behrens, Todd Wilander, Ricardo Lugo
Respectable Lady………..Kathryn Day
Lady’s Sons…………….Kevin Burdette, Matthew Boehler
Khosrev-mirza…………..Vladimir Ognovenko
Ivan, Kovalyov’s Servant…Sergei Skorokhodov
Acting Ensemble…………Snezhana Chernova, Frank Colardo, Svetlana Kifa, Stass Klassen, Vadim Krol, Alexander
Merinov, Erik Parillo, Dan Renkin, Dina Rose Rivera, Inna Yesilevskaya

Conductor………………Pavel Smelkov

Production……………..William Kentridge
Stage Director………….William Kentridge
Stage Director………….Luc De Wit
Set Designer……………William Kentridge
Set Designer……………Sabine Theunissen
Costume Designer………..Greta Goiris
Lighting Designer……….Urs Schönebaum