Work Information
| Work Notes |
available in the USA, Canada and Mexico only |
Publisher |
Dmitri Shostakovich Estate |
| Category |
Opera and Music Theatre |
Year Composed |
1959 |
| Duration |
2 Hours, 40 Minutes |
Chorus |
chorus |
| Solo Instrument(s) |
2 Sopranos, Mezzo Soprano, Tenor, 3 Baritones, Bass, singing actress, singing actor, 4 Sopranos, 3 Mezzo Sopranos, 2 Tenors, 2 Basses |
Orchestration |
3(pic).332/4331/timp.perc/hp/str |
| Languages |
Russian |
Availability |
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| Discography |
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| Full Score(s): |
50486448 |
Full Score(s): |
Not available |
| Libretto(s): |
50541260 |
Libretto(s): |
Not available |
| Vocal Score(s): |
50541460 |
Vocal Score(s): |
Not available |
Programme Note
Synopsis:
In late 1950s Moscow, a smart new block of apartments has been built and everyone is desperate to live there. Newly-weds Sasha and Masha, Lidochka Baburov with her friend Boris, an explosives expert and chauffeur Sergei and his crane-driving girlfriend Lyusya all dream of having a place of their own. While keys are withheld from their rightful owners, Lyusya lifts Boris and Lidochka up to their new home in her crane. And as Sasha and Masha host a house-warming party, government official Drebednyov, who illegally plans to knock two apartments into one for his ambitious new wife, comes bursting through the neighbouring wall. But the residents find away of exposing all the corruption and the wrong-doers are defeated, leaving everyone else to live happily ever after.
Reviews
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Best of all were two Shostakovich theatre events....One was Francesca Zambello's production of Shostakovich's 1959 operetta-musical "Moskva: Cheryomushki," or "Cherry Tree Towers," which has long had a dull reputation but came to life here as a witty, goofy, even touching affair. The plot, mildly subversive in its mention of Communist Party corruption, follows the love lives of young Soviets who are scrambling for apartments in a horrible new high-rise. The score is infested with satires and self-quotations.
Alex Ross, The New Yorker
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A musical by Shostakovich? The colossal and inscrutable 20th-century composer who has come to epitomize the tragic plight of the artist compelled to play a public role in a totalitarian state?...
That Shostakovich and his librettists got away with this degree of social satire while Nikita S. Khrushchev was in power is amazing....
The musical becomes an uplifting comic saga about the power common folk can exert when they band together in the collectivist spirit against officialdom. Shostakovich tucks some clever musical twists into his deceptively simple score of lilting waltzes and exuberant ensembles.
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
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