''The Taming of the Shrew'' (Russian ''Ukroshchenye stroptivoy'', Cyrillic ''Укрощение строптивой'') is a 1957 opera in four acts, five scenes by

Vissarion Shebalin Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin (russian: Виссарио́н Я́ковлевич Шебали́н; 29 May 1963) was a Soviet composer. Biography Shebalin was born in Omsk, where his parents were school teachers. He studied in the musical colle ...

to a libretto by the Soviet musicologist Abram Akimovich Gozenpud, based on the comedy by William Shakespeare. Gozenpud utilized very little of Shakespeare's original text in his libretto, and completely eliminated many of the secondary characters and subplots from the play. His libretto does match the spirit of Shakespeare's play in its use of wit, the genuine passion of the story's lovers, and mixture of both lofty and coarse language.*Fay, Laurel, "Ukroshcheniye stroptivoy", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed October 11, 2015)
(subscription access)

Performance history

''Ukroshcheniye stroptivoy'' had its world premiere in a concert version at the Central House of Artists in Moscow on 1 October 1955. The opera was first staged at the Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre (then known as the Kuybïshev Opera) on 25 May 1957 under the baton of conductor S. S. Bergolts. Unhappy with the final scene between Katherine and Petruchio, Shebalin completely re-wrote the ending of the opera for the work's first staging at the Bolshoi Theatre in August 1957. In subsequent months the work was performed in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Kiev and other cities. The success of the opera enabled Shebalin to be partly rehabilitated and is considered by some Russian musicologists the "most successful Russian opera based on Shakespeare." The music is in a traditional high-spirited

opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...

idiom.

Roles

Plot

Bianka, the youngest daughter of Paduan merchant Baptista Minola, has won the hearts of two young noblemen, Liuchentsio and Gortenzio, who are in competition for her affections. However, Baptista will not allow his youngest daughter to marry until his oldest daughter, the tempestuous Katerina, has married. The two young nobleman conspire together to marry off Katerina so they may freely compete for Bianca. The two men recruit Hortensio's visiting friend, the Verona nobleman Petruchio, to be Katarina's suitor. All does not go well at first, but by the opera's conclusion Petruchio and Katarina are happily in love and married.

Recordings

The 1957 Bolshoi performance under

Zdeněk Chalabala Zdeněk Chalabala (18 April 1899 – 4 March 1962) was a Czechoslovak conductor. He conducted orchestras in Prague, Ostrava, Moscow. Chalabala was born in Uherské Hradiště. He studied conducting at the Brno Conservatory with František Neu ...

with

Galina Vishnevskaya Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya (russian: links=no, Галина Павловна Вишневская, Ivanova, Иванова; 25 October 192611 December 2012) was a Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist who was named a People's Artist o ...

as Caterina,

Yevgeny Kibkalo Yevgeny Gavrilovich Kibkalo (russian: Евгений Гаврилович Кибкало; 12 February 1932, Kyiv – 12 February 2003, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian operatic baritone singer and pedagogue. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1970). ...

as Petruchio,

Glafira Deomidova Glafira Vladimirovna Deomidova (russian: Глафира Владимировна Деомидова, b. 1929) is a Russian soprano who sang at the Bolshoi Theatre company from 1956 to 1977. Deomidova sang the role of Bianca in Zdeněk Chalabala' ...

as Bianca and

Arthur Eisen Artur Arturovich Eizen (russian: Артур Артурович Эйзен; 8 June 1927, Moscow – 26 February 2008, Moscow), was a Soviet and Russian bass singer, actor and pedagogue. People's Artist of the USSR (1976). He was born into a fami ...

as Baptista, was recorded for radio and issued in 1961 on LP by

Melodiya Melodiya ( rus, links=no, Мелодия, t=Melody) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) record label. It was the state-owned major record company of the Soviet Union. History Melodiya was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm ...

.Recordings of three works
based on ''The Taming of the Shrew'': Shebalin;

Hermann Goetz Hermann Gustav Goetz (7 December 1840 – 3 December 1876) was a German composer who spent much of his career in Switzerland. He is best known for his 1872 opera '' Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung'', based on Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shre ...

: '' Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung'';

Vicente Martín y Soler Anastasio Martín Ignacio Vicente Tadeo Francisco Pellegrin Martín y Soler (2 May 175430 January or 10 February 1806) was a Spanish composer of opera and ballet. Although relatively obscure now, in his own day he was compared favorably with his ...

: ''La capricciosa corretta''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taming of the Shrew (Shebalin), The Russian-language operas 1957 operas Operas based on The Taming of the Shrew Operas