In the first detailed study of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Pauline Fairclough offers a radically new interpretation of one of the twentieth century's most popular operas. Banned by Joseph Stalin after he went to see it in early 1936, Lady Macbeth was never heard again in Shostakovich's lifetime. In her examination of original sources from the very first productions of the opera in 1934, Fairclough shows how Lady Macbeth was understood by contemporary Soviet audiences and how its shocking portrayal of sexual violence against women was rooted in the culture and everyday reality of early Soviet society.