CCCXXVI. SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri: Orango

CCCXXVI. SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri (1906-1975)

Orango (1932/2011)
Gerard McBurney, orchestration
Natalia Pavlova, Suzanna
Natalia Jakimova, Renée
Aleksander Šagun, Armand Fleury
Aleksander Trofimov, Paul Mâche
Vladimir Babokin, Foreigner 1
Oleg Losev, Foreigner 2
Dmitro Koljeuško, Zoologist
Ivan Novoselov, Orango
Leo Elhardt, Voice from the Crowd
Denis Beganski, The Entertainer
Juri Jevtšuk, Bass solo
Dominante Choir
Murtosointu Choir
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Part 1 (9:30)
Part 2 (12:51)
Part 3 (11:48)

The image of someone picking through garbage cans summons up a Special Organized Crime Investigator, or maybe a paparazzo searching Brad Pitt's recycling bin.

But stranger than that, some unknown composer friend of Shostakovich's bribed his housemaid to regularly deliver the contents of his waste bins to him rather than throwing them in the garbage.

The seven sheets of manuscript paper which compromise the piano sketches for this work were among those found by the Russian musicologist Olgo Digonskaya in 2004. With Irina Shostakovich's (third wife) blessing, Gerard McBurney orchestrated the piano sketches (which contained the vocal parts) and the work was premiered in Los Angeles in 2011.

The inspiration for this bizarre idea came from an eccentric biologist -- Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, who unsuccessfully attempted to implant human sperm into female chimpanzees.

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So how did it end up in the circular file?

In 1932, the Bloshoi Theatre commissioned the work to be performed on the 15th anniversary of the Revolution. Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (distant relative of Leo) and Alexander Osipovich Starchakov were engaged to write the libretto.

The two writers failed to meet their deadline, and Shostakovich was busy writing his opera, Lady Macbeth (see Post CCLXXXIV), so the project was abandoned, and DS tossed the pages into the garbage.

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Of course, all we have of those seven pages is just the first part of the Prologue, which might have turned into a mighty opera, like Lady Macbeth.

But we are fortunate to have this fragment, which is most entertainingly presented in McBurney's version, along with a darkly satirical video accompaniment.

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Oh yes -- Starchakov was arrested and shot by Stalin's secret police in 1937. I am unable to find any further details. One of millions -- murdered for some trifle, no doubt ...