Shostakovich was popular and alright in USSR until 1936.
Stalin attended several of Shostakovich’s opera and liked them, until Lady Macbeth. Stalin sat in the audience, cringed at loud parts of the score and laughed at sexual moments. Displeased, Stalin left after the end of the third act. A frightened Shostakovich was reportedly “white as a sheet” when he bowed for the audience. Two days later “Muddle Instead of Music” appeared on the third page of the 28 January issue of Pravda.
The critique was very sharp (and a little mean… poor Shosty). The Lexicon of Musical Invective (see more about the book of collage of music critique here) should have included this!
And all this is coarse, primitive and vulgar. The music quacks, grunts, and growls, and suffocates otself in order to express the love scenes as naturalistically as possible. And “love” is smeared all over the opera in the most vulgar manner.
…
Our theatres have expended a great deal of energy on giving Shostakovich’s opera a thorough presentation. The actors have shown exceptional talent in dominating the noise, the screaming, and the roar of the orchestra. With their dramatic action, they have tried to reinforce the weakness of the melodic content. Unfortunately, this has served only to bring out the opera’s vulgar features more vividly. The talented acting deserves gratitude, the wasted efforts - regret.
The article despite its biased musical taste and personal pov is good, sharp critique—worth reading in its full glory. An archived English version can be found here.
Reference
Wikipedia contributors. “Muddle Instead of Music.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 Sep. 2025. Web. 30 Dec. 2025.
“Muddle Instead of Music”, Pravda, 28 January 1936 (English translation). Archived 27 January 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110127123117/http://www.arnoldschalks.nl/tlte1sub1.html