Nikolai Leskov

Of Shostakovich’s initial undertaking – a trilogy on the tragic destinies of Russian women through the ages – only one opera was ever written: the hard-hitting Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Although one of the mainsprings of the work, the Shakespearean parallel is here bitterly ironic: unlike Lady Macbeth, Katerina Ismaïlova who, in the remote reaches of rural 19th century Russia, falls in love with one of her husband’s employees and is finally forced to commit suicide, is less a manipulator than a victim of a violent and patriarchal society. Krzysztof Warlikowski liberates all the subversive power of this scorching and scandalous work, which marked the early years of the Opéra Bastille.

Rural England, 1865. Katherine, suffocated by her loveless marriage to a bitter man and restrained by his father's tyranny, unleashes an irresistible force within her, so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is a powerful work of raw emotional intensity. With themes of adultery and murder, the story follows the downfall of a bored provincial merchant’s wife who seeks solace and excitement in an extra-marital affair. With a bold and contemporary setting, the staging provides the perfect backdrop to this 20th-century opera’s unflinching approach to sex and violence.

A stage performance of the Shostakovich opera, filmed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

A young woman, married to a wealthy man, but miserably lonely; trapped within a world ruled with an iron fist. Katerina is driven by a lust for life and for love. Her husband, though, is impotent; her father-in-law a tyrant. No wonder, then, that she longs to free herself from this yoke. When Sergei starts work on the family estate, she sees in him a chance for salvation. However, their subsequent affair marks the beginning of a descent into crime.

In the story of Konstantin Vorobyov "killed near Moscow." The film is subtitled in the name of the protagonist about the defense of Moscow in 2941. On the advanced detachment of the Kremlin the cadets arrive. This, the newest guys have not smelled gunpowder. Armed with 240 SVT; students, grenades and Molotov cocktails. Orders, just two: "At any cost!" and "Not one step back!". They are waiting for the heavy, physical and mental, test. Will the young men to stand up and fight back to the enemy..?

Tsar Alexander I acquires a mechanical flea to add to his collection of curiosities.

The city philistine Domna Platonovna-a merchant of lace, and sometimes... and "live goods" - is engaged in pimping. Fate confronts her with a young intelligent woman-a noblewoman, a colonel, Lekanida Petrovna, whose difficult life trials led to a moral decline. Domna Platonovna tells her tragic story with imperturbable calmness, presenting her own unseemly actions that push the unfortunate woman as the greatest benefits rendered to her.

A love story between a barber and a serf actress who find themselves in an environment that combines savagery with a veneer of enlightenment. Based on Nikolai Leskov's short story "The Toupee Artist".

Katerina Izmailova is a filmization of Dmitry Shostakovich's long-suppressed 1936 opera. Galina Vishnevskaya stars as Katerina, a bored 19th century farm wife. At the behest of her grungy lover, Katerina murders her husband and her father-in-law. She and her new beau are both sent to Siberia, where the lover almost immediately takes up with a younger woman. Banned by Stalin for its bleak portrait of Soviet life, Katerina Izmailova was not given a Russian staging for over 40 years; its Metropolitan Opera debut did not occur until 1994. Dmitri Shostakovich also wrote the screenplay for the screen version of Katerina Izmailova.

A ruthless woman's adulterous affair with a drifter sets in motion a chain-reaction of murder and deception in a remote village in 19th Century Mtsensk.

When she was a little girl, Liuba came to town with her widowed mother to live in the block of flats owned by her aunt Anna Iwanowna. The wealthy and cold-hearted Anna Iwanowna barely accepted them as tenants. And no sooner did Liuba's mother die than she wanted to send her niece to the orphanage. Fortunately, Pawlin, Anna Iwanowna's janitor, decided to adopt her and he brought her up with affection. When she grew up, the beautiful Liuba fell in love with her aunt's son, Dodja, a good-looking but profligate army officer. Wishing nothing more than an affair with Liuba, Dodja did not hesitate to play the comedy of love to her. When she realized what Dodja was really after, Liuba was devastated and in desperation accepted to marry Pawlin, her benefactor, who had been infatuated with her for years. Alas, in the middle of the wedding party Dodja danced with Liuba and eloped with her