Shostakovitch - (2) Cheryomushki (Duet and Pantomime) Video

Dmitri Shostakovitch (1906-1975)

Moscow Cheryomushki (Russian: Москва Черемушки, Moskva Cheryomushki) is an operetta in three acts by Dmitri Shostakovich, his Op. 105. The libretto was written by the experienced team of Vladimir Mass and Mikhail Chervinsky, leading Soviet humorists of the day. The satirical plot dealt with a topical theme geared to one of the most pressing concerns of urban Russians, the chronic housing shortages and the difficulties of securing livable conditions. Cheryomushki translates to bird-cherry trees and the operetta was named after a real housing estate in southwest Moscow.

The work was completed in 1958 and received its premiere on 24 January 1959 at the Mayakovsky Operetta Theatre under Grigori Stolyarov. The operetta is reminiscent of Shostakovichs popular music of the period, yet at the same time it engages a satirical assessment of the housing redevelopments in Moscow.

In a musical career which spans half a century, Shostakovich engrossed himself with a staggeringly diverse range of genres and styles. Beyond the fifteen symphonies and fifteen string quartets, the lesser-known works of Shostakovich offer intrigue and interest likewise. With the reappraisal of Shostakovich in recent times, this category of light music is beginning to enjoy unprecedented popularity within concert halls and record catalogues.

Cheryomushki belongs in this category of works. While the frivolous idiom lent the operetta some initial success, the ailing work soon became forgotten in the Soviet operetta repertoire. For a long time the work remained unknown in the West, and this is partially linked to the decline of the operetta form in the post-war years, and the emergence of newer genres such as the musical. Yet perhaps its short commercial shelf life was not unexpected, given that the operetta was regarded as a work of light entertainment, and with that its emphasis on contemporary social issues and popular culture references.

The operetta tells the story of a group of friends and acquaintances who have been granted new apartments in this residential development. The different aspects of the housing problem are represented by each of the many characters.

* Sasha, after his recent marriage to Masha, finds that the young couple cannot live together as they have no home. Sasha shares a communal apartment with one of his fellow museum guides,Lidochka and her father, Semyon Semyonovich, while, on the other side of town, Masha shares a room in a temporary hostel.

* Boris is an explosives expert, who sought to settle in Moscow having worked in many parts of the Soviet Union. In the opening of the operetta, Boris encounters an old acquaintance, Sergei, who works as a chauffeur for a high-ranking official. Sergei meets and falls in love with Liusia, a young alluring construction worker from the Cheryomushki site.

* The seven good characters are unsurprisingly confronted by enemies with conflicting interests. Fyodor Drebednev is an obnoxious bureaucrat who is responsible for the building of the Cheryomushki estate and the allocation of the apartments. Drebednov has been married three times, but now has a new partner, Vava, a Machiavellian young woman who uses her affair as a means of acquiring a new apartment. Barabashkin is the lower-rank estate manager, who is likewise corrupt as his superior, Drebednov.

For this satirical but frivolous take on contemporary living in the Soviet Union, Shostakovich conceived one of his longest compositions. With an epic score running over one hundred minutes without dialogue, Cheryomushki covers a bewildering variation of styles, from pieces of the Romantic idiom to the most vulgar popular songs. Shostakovich himself was one of the works first critics, and he became deeply disillusioned and embarrassed with its crudity. Just days before the pieces premiere in the Moscow Operetta Theatre, he wrote to his acquaintance Isaak Glikman:

"I am behaving very properly and attending rehearsals of my operetta. I am burning with shame. If you have any thoughts of coming to the first night, I advise you to think again. It is not worth spending time to feast your eyes and ears on my disgrace. Boring, unimaginative, stupid. This is, in confidence, all I have to tell you."