Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
Muddle Instead of Music: On the Opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (Russian: Сумбур вместо музыки – Об опере «Леди Макбет Мценского уезда») is an editorial that appeared in the Soviet newspaper "Pravda" on January 28, 1936. The unsigned article condemned Dmitri Shostakovich's popular opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" as, among other labels, "formalist," "bourgeois", "coarse" and "vulgar." Immediately after publication rumors began to circulate that Stalin had written the opinion. While this is unlikely, it is almost certain that Stalin was aware of and agreed with the article. "Muddle Instead of Music" was a turning point in Shostakovich's career and factored into his public withdrawal of the Fourth Symphony some months later. The article has since become a well-known example of Soviet censorship of the arts.