Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
Shostakovich had to be very careful what he said otherwise he could have been in big trouble.  He never spoke in public about music and culture.  In 1937 he wrote his Symphony no 5.  The music in this symphony was easier to understand than the music he had been writing before which had a lot of atonal music.  Shostakovich said that this new symphony of his was “a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism”.  He had to agree to say this so that he would be allowed to carry on composing.  Later, in 1962, he made some changes to the opera and called it Katerina Ismailova.   Since his death in 1975 it is usually the original version which is performed.