Benjamin Britten the apex of his reputation: it was almost universally hailed as a masterpiece." Shostakovich told Rostropovich that he believed it to be "the greatest work of the twentieth century". In 1967 the BBC commissioned Britten to write an opera specially for television. "Owen Wingrave" was based, like "The Turn of the Screw", on a ghost story by Henry James. By the 1960s Britten found composition much slower than in his prolific youth; he told the 28-year-old composer Nicholas Maw, "Get as much done now as you can, because it gets much, much more difficult as you grow older." He did
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (novella) faces of Boris, Zinovy, and Fyodor in the water. The two women briefly resurface, still alive, but Katerina grabs Sonya, and they both drown. Leskov's story inspired an opera of the same name by Dmitri Shostakovich, ballet "Lady Macbeth '77 (Katarina Izmailova)" by Yugoslav composer Rudolf Brucci, the 1962 Yugoslavian film "Sibirska Ledi Magbet" ("Siberian Lady Macbeth") directed by Andrzej Wajda, 1989 Soviet film "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" by Roman Balayan, and the 2016 British film by William Oldroyd, "Lady Macbeth". Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (novella) Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District ( "Ledi Makbet Mtsenskovo