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Opera

Thank god for bored wives: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the ENO reviewed

Plus: I can take immersion. But washing up? The Barbican’s ‘mindfulness opera’ Lost in Thought reviewed

3 October 2015

9:00 AM

3 October 2015

9:00 AM

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Coliseum, in rep until 20 October

Lost in Thought: A Mindfulness Opera

LSO St Luke’s

‘Kiss me, Sergei! Kiss me hard! Kiss me until the icons fall and split!’ sings Katerina Ismailova, adulterous antiheroine of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Stalin was not amused by Shostakovich’s bleak black comedy but our culture would be poorer without bored wives like Katerina. Perhaps all that Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina and Laura Jesson needed was a proper kiss — the sort that mutes the white noise of disappointment.

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