The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew (Russian Ukroshchenye stroptivoy, Cyrillic Укрощение строптивой) is a 1957 opera in four acts, five scenes by Vissarion Shebalin to a libretto by the Soviet musicologist Abram Akimovich Gozenpud, based on the comedy by William Shakespeare. Gozenpud utilized very little of Shakespeare's original text in his libretto, and completely eliminated many of the secondary characters and subplots from the play. His libretto does match the spirit of Shakespeare's play in its use of wit, the genuine passion of the story's lovers, and mixture of both lofty and coarse language. Performance history Ukroshcheniye stroptivoy had its world premiere in a concert version at the Central House of Artists in Moscow on 1 October 1955. The opera was first staged at the Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre (then known as the Kuybïshev Opera) on 25 May 1957 under the baton of conductor S. S. Bergolts. Unhappy with the final scene between Katherine and Petruchio, Shebalin completely re-wrote the ending of the opera for the work's first staging at the Bolshoi Theatre in August 1957. In subsequent months the work was performed in Leningrad, Kiev and other cities. The success of the opera enabled Shebalin to be partly rehabilitated and is considered by some Russian musicologists the "most successful Russian opera based on Shakespeare." The music is in a traditional high-spirited opera buffa idiom. Roles