Add One to the List of Greats: Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth

Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth is a top modern opera

Any list of the great 20th century operas would have to start with Puccini's Turandot and Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, which summed up, respectively, the Italian and German romantic traditions. It would also include Debussy's Petteas et Melisande, the French composer's 1902 masterpiece of Gallic allusion and understatement; Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, the most important work to enter the international repertory since World War II; and Alban Berg's twin monuments — Wozzeck, the seminal opera of our time, and Lulu, the apotheosis of the...