Marin Alsop leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in the BSO premiere ofShostakovich: Notes for Stalin, a Symphonic Play™ by Playwright in Residence Didi Balle. This special Off the Cuff performance onFriday, November 14 at 8:15 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore and Saturday, November 15 at 7 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall dramatizes Shostakovich's harrowing life during Stalin's murderous reign in 1930s Russia, and features actors Jered McLenigan, Richard Poe and Tony Tsendeas. Please see below for complete program details.
"Notes for Stalin is set in 1934 Russia, and is the real life story of what the composer endured as he prepared to write the Fifth Symphony under Stalin's murderous reign. He was the most celebrated young composer in Russia at the time," said Ms. Balle in an interview withOverture magazine. "Stalin and his henchmen came to see his long-running opera, and stormed out in the middle of the first act. Several days later, there was a denouncement in Pravda saying that Shostakovich was a threat to the Soviet people. What he and his family endured - he slept with a packed suitcase under his bed as he was writing, prepared to be taken away at any moment. It's an amazing piece of music, and an extraordinary story."Shostakovich: Notes for Stalin was originally commissioned by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra and received its world premiere on March 1, 2013. Notes for Stalin is the BSO's fifth presentation of a Symphonic Play by Didi Balle.
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