The Bolt (Shostakovich)

The Bolt (Russian: Болт), Op. 27 is a ballet music score written by Dmitri Shostakovich between 1930 and 1931 to a libretto by Victor Smirnov. The full-length ballet in three acts and seven scenes was choreographed by Fyodor Lopukhov and premiered on 8 April 1931 at the State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Leningrad.

Plot

The ballet is an ironic tale of slovenly work in a Soviet factory. The lazy Lyonka hates work and together with a local priest and anti-Soviet plotter he plans to sabotage the machinery by putting a bolt in it. Their plan is foiled by a group of Young Communists.

Instrumentation

Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 Bb clarinets, Eb clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, double bassoon

Brass: 6 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba

Percussion: timpani, triangle, tambourine, snare drums, cymbals, bass drum, gong, glockenspiel, xylophone

Strings: violins, violas, cellos, double basses

Banda in Finale: Eb cornet, 2 Bb cornets, 2 trombones, 8 saxophones (2A,2T,2Bar,2B)

Reception

The premiere was the only performance for 74 years, as the audience jeered it and the critics upbraided it for its un-Soviet intentions. Along with his other ballets The Limpid Stream and The Golden Age, the work was banned after Shostakovich's first denunciation by the authorities. He subsequently put parts of it in his other music.

The waspish and delightfully colourful score bowls along like a children’s cartoon-film, every number full of drama and parody and fine take-offs of serious and popular music of every kind. Among the highlights are the opening scene when the workers gather in the morning for their physical fitness class before hitting the conveyor belts, the appearance of pompous and opinionated officials and bureaucrats, a ridiculous church-going episode, and the exciting scene when the sabotage-conspiracy nearly succeeds and is only foiled at the last moment. There are also plenty of numbers which mimic the whirling and hammering sounds of modern factory machinery.^[1]

— Gerard McBurney

Suite

Shostakovich composed a suite from the ballet, Op. 27a, with 8 movements:

1. Overture (Introduction)
2. The Bureaucrat (Polka)
3. The Drayman's Dance (Variations)
4. Koelkov's Dance with Friends (Tango)
5. Intermezzo
6. The Dance of the Colonial Slave-Girl
7. The Appeaser
8. General Dance and Apotheosis

References

Notes

Sources

• Fay, Laurel E. ed. (2004). Shostakovich and His World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

External links

• Complete ballet on YouTube

Dmitri Shostakovich
Operas and operetta	Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Moscow, Cheryomushki The Nose Orango (unfinished) The Big Lightning (unfinished) The Twelve Chairs (unfinished) The Gamblers (unfinished)
Ballets	The Bolt The Golden Age The Limpid Stream
Symphonies	No. 1 in F minor No. 2 in B major (To October) No. 3 in E♭ major (The First of May) No. 4 in C minor No. 5 in D minor No. 6 in B minor No. 7 in C major (Leningrad) No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in E minor No. 11 in G minor (The Year 1905) No. 12 in D minor (The Year 1917) No. 13 in B♭ minor (Babi-Yar) No. 14 No. 15 in A major
Concertos	Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor Violin Concerto No. 2 in C♯ minor Cello Concerto No. 1 in E♭ major Cello Concerto No. 2 in G major
Orchestral works	Suite from The Nose Suite from The Golden Age Suite from The Bolt Suite from The Limpid Stream Suite from Encounter at the Elbe Suite from The Gadfly Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1 Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 Suite for Variety Orchestra Tahiti Trot Festive Overture in A major for Orchestra Novorossiisk Chimes, the Flame of Eternal Glory for Orchestra
Film music	The New Babylon Alone Golden Mountains Counterplan The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda The Youth of Maxim Girl Friends The Return of Maxim The Vyborg Side Friends The Great Citizen Zoya Simple People The Young Guard Pirogov Michurin Meeting on the Elbe The Fall of Berlin Belinsky The Unforgettable Year 1919 The Gadfly Five Days, Five Nights Sofiya Perovskaya Hamlet King Lear
Vocal music	Anti-Formalist Rayok The Execution of Stepan Razin From Jewish Folk Poetry Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok Song of the Forests Suite on Finnish Themes Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti The Sun Shines over Our Motherland
Chamber music	String quartets No. 1 in C major No. 2 in A major No. 3 in F major No. 4 in D major No. 5 in B♭ major No. 6 in G major No. 7 in F♯ minor No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in A♭ major No. 11 in F minor No. 12 in D♭ major No. 13 in B♭ minor No. 14 in F♯ major No. 15 in E♭ minor Other Cello Sonata in D minor Piano Quintet in G minor Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Quartet Movement in E♭ major (c. 1960s) Viola Sonata Violin Sonata
Piano music	Twenty-Four Piano Preludes and Fugues Children's Notebook (6) Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor Three Fantastic Dances
Named for Shostakovich	2669 Shostakovich London Shostakovich Orchestra Shostakovich Peninsula
Related articles	List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich DSCH motif Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 Literaturoper Maxim Shostakovich (son) Muddle Instead of Music Neoclassicism Post-romanticism Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Testimony The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin Wihuri Sibelius Prize
Portal:Classical music