The Nose

Dmitri Shostakovich

Tickets

Heinz und Horst Filmproduktion

A man loses his nose—and it begins to take on a life of its own. Director Barrie Kosky plunges us into a nightmarish, wildly exaggerated satire, with marching noses, rolling rickshaw tables, and caricatured protagonists in garish costumes that straddle folklore and historicism, all unfolding within a cold, bleak setting that feels claustrophobic despite its size. This surrealist story of the insecure and paranoid upstart Platon Kuzmich Kovalyov is transformed into a absurd, kaleidoscopic revue of the vanities, an unsettling collision of Wozzeck and Alice in Wonderland with its own ‘irrational’ logic.

While to his own surprise and to his wife’s chagrin, the barber Ivan Yakovlevich finds a nose in the bread dough one fine morning, which he quickly tries to get rid of again, the collegiate assessor Platon Kuzmich Kovalyov notices after a boozy night that he has lost his nose. In a panic, he begins hunting for the runaway body part. A prolonged noselessness would mean his social death! He believes to have spotted his nose at a funeral service at the cathedral but he can’t convince it to stay with him.

As in a dark nightmare, Kovalyov chases after his rebellious olfactory organ, but the police is notably absent and at the news desk where he wants to book an advertisement he is met with nothing but scorn and derision. He laments his fate in desperation.

Through this hunt for the nose, a motley crew of people mutates into a hysterical mob, which finally succeeds in determining the fugitive’s whereabouts. The police inspector himself delivers it to the overjoyed collegiate assessor, but – oh my! – the defiant hooter doesn’t want to stay put. Kovalyov believes he was bewitched by Pelagia Grigorievna Podtochina, who considers Kovalyov a good catch for her daughter. He immediately writes her a reproachful letter. Upset by these allegations, Madame Podtochina rejects them in her response.

As suddenly as the nose had vanished it unexpectedly returns to its place. Finally, Kovalyov can freely show himself in public again. He meets with Podtochina and her daughter, and imagines how he is once again going to flirt with the ladies. Now that everything is back in its place – hopefully …

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Opera in three acts, based on the story of the same name by Nikolai Gogol [1930]

Libretto by Dmitri Shostakovich, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ionin, and Alexander Preis

German text version by Ulrich Lenz

In the repertoire since June 16, 2018

Co-production with the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Sydney Opera, and Teatro Real Madrid

Cast

Trailer

Program Booklet

Audio Introduction

Recommended from grade 9

German

2h, no intermission

Musikalische Leitung

James Gaffigan

Inszenierung