In 2004 musicologist Olga Digonskaya discovered a new Shostakovich work, the Prologue to Orango, what the composer had planned to be a large three act opera, which he never completed due to the hostile political environment. It's not hard to see why he would have abandoned the project in 1932, as the first waves of governmental repression were sweeping through the artistic community, in which an avant-garde spirit of experimentalism and modernism was flourishing. It's among his most overtly, daringly political works, filled ...
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In 2004 musicologist Olga Digonskaya discovered a new Shostakovich work, the Prologue to Orango, what the composer had planned to be a large three act opera, which he never completed due to the hostile political environment. It's not hard to see why he would have abandoned the project in 1932, as the first waves of governmental repression were sweeping through the artistic community, in which an avant-garde spirit of experimentalism and modernism was flourishing. It's among his most overtly, daringly political works, filled with outrageously scurrilous sexual references. It's also a painful reminder of what a brilliant theatrical composer he was and what a tragedy it is that he produced a single entirely complete opera. Peter Sellars, who directed the premiere performance of the Prologue (in a version orchestrated by Gerard McBurney at the composer's widow's request) in 2011 with Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chorale, and an outstanding cast of soloists, pretty...
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