Admission: $1.50

For opera-lovers, a must: musically this Soviet film version of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera “Katerina Izmailova” is magnificent. The story of a love-starved wife, adultery and murder on the farm of a rich merchant may be old-style melodrama, but the voices of the Shevchenko Opera, in particular the soaring and expressive soprano of Galina Vishnevskaya acting and singing in the title role, project the power of the composer's music.
When Shostakovich's opera was first performed in Russia in 1934, it was criticized for being “non-political,” the story being based on the 19th-century novel by Nikolai Leskov, “Lady Macbeth Of Mtsenk.” Subsequently it received official favor, the heroine being deemed the victim of a “vicious” bourgeoisie who murders her “oppressors.”