Dmitri Shostakovich, Cherry Town (1959)

I feel like a lot of people don't know that Shostakovich wrote an operetta, but guess what? It was popular enough that it was made into a film in 1963; apparently it reshuffles parts of the story and cuts out some of Shostakovich's score, but on the other hand, he also wrote some new music just for the movie, so swings and roundabouts. Operetta was a big thing in the Soviet Union--it does seem like it would be a good thing to have around to distract people from various problems--but most of it is unknown outside Russia (I have no idea whether it's even regularly performed in Russia these days). But at any rate, because this one is Shostakovich, we have the opportunity to check it out.

The plot is sort of trivial: there are various young people in Moscow; mainly, a young man, Boris, courting a young woman, Liusia, and a married couple, Masha and Sasha. They are having trouble finding appropriate housing; it's especially hard for Masha and Sasha, who in spite of being married can't live together because apartments are so hard to come by. There are also some corrupt officials who allocate apartments in an unfair fashion and whatnot.

I'll say one thing about this: it is extremely fixated on real estate. I mean, I understand that it was a problem at the time, but it nonetheless come across as fairly bizarre, like a Monty Python sketch. There's one part here where Masha is super-psyched that the building he was living in has collapsed because it means he'll get priority for new housing. This reminded me of a part in Francis Spufford's Red Plenty where two workers sabotage a piece of equipment so it'll be replaced by the new, more efficient model and they'll be able to meet their otherwise-impossible production quota. Naturally, it does not work out as well there as it does here.

Both the operetta itself and the film are very lightweight and cheesy, in a way that kind of humanizes the Soviets, if you think they needed humanization: see? they liked trashy kitsch just like we did! It's kind of charming in that regard, though it sort of has darker implications if you think about it: here, the housing problem is really just an irritating but minor thing to be dealt with with in a good-natured way while still looking forward to a glorious future. In reality, I have to imagine it was much more unpleasant for people, and that future turned out not to forthcome, alas.

The music is fun enough, but not overly consequential: Shostakovich was definitely capable of more than this. And the way the producers did not make even a token effort to match the dubbed singers to the actors' speaking voices is...noticeable. Overall, the piece is sort of charming in a very flimsy way, and very interesting as a historical artifact, but not among the great operettas.