The Gamblers (Shostakovich)

The Gamblers, Op. 63 (1941–42; Igroki), is an unfinished opera by Dmitri Shostakovich to his own libretto based on Nikolai Gogol's comedy The Gamblers (1842). The surviving first act lasts around 47 minutes.

Shostakovich, who was trying to set every word of Gogol's play, abandoned the opera as too long and unwieldy.[1] He reused material from the opera in the scherzo of his final composition, the Viola Sonata.[2]

Meyer completion

The opera was completed by Krzysztof Meyer as Die Spieler premiered in Leningrad 1978.[3]

Recordings

• Shostakovich The Gamblers, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, cond. Andrei Chistyakov
• Shostakovich The Gamblers, with the same composer's The Nose, cond. Gennady Rozhdestvensky
• Shostakovich The Gamblers; with Veniamin Fleishman's Rothschild's Violin. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko 2008
• Shostakovich/Meyer Die Spieler (completion) Michail Jurowski, Capriccio Records

References

1. Bartlett, Rosamund (2008). Fairclough, Pauline; Fanning, David (eds.). Shostakovich as Opera Composer. Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 192. ISBN 9780521603157.
2. Macdonald, Malcolm (2008). Fairclough, Pauline; Fanning, David (eds.). 'I Took a Simple Little Theme and Developed it': Shostakovich's String Concertos and Sonatas. Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0521603157.
3. Franklin Mesa, Opera: An Encyclopedia of World Premieres and Significant ... 1476605378, 2007: "Composer: Shostakovich, Dmitri Dmitriyevich (1906–75). Composed 1941–2; incomplete. Completed by Krzysztof Meyer as Die Spieler. Librettist: Based on the play (1842) by Nikolay Vasil'yevich Gogol (1809–52). World Premiere: Leningrad 1978."