Even if the Soviet house organ, Pravda (it was, OC understands, like a knockoff fashion magazine, only with badly-dressed Russians in it and very few photos anyway) really hated it and they wanted to gut poor nerdy Shostakovich like a sturgeon for it, Opera Chic is a huge fan of Shostakovich's ms. bada$$ opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk .
And Nikolai Leskov (picture above), the writer of the pulp novel that inspired the libretto, Леди Макбет Мценского уезда, was actually pretty cool. Russian text here.
Now OC has got to go at la Scala for la prima of the opera, she does not want to make the paparazzi wait too long.