Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Leskov and Shostakovich

The novelWrites Nikolái Leskov (1831-1895): “Sometimes in our lands there are certain natures that, no matter how many years pass since the encounter, one is never able to remember them without a chill. Katerina Lvovna Izmailova belongs to this kind of nature, the woman of a merchant who once interpreted a terrible drama after which our nobles, by someone’s easy word, began to call her the lady Macbeth of the province of Mtsensk” (Nordic books; …