| King Lear | |
|---|---|
| Film score by Dmitri Shostakovich | |
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Dmitri_Shostakovich_June_1973.jpg) Shostakovich in June 1973 | |
| Native name | Король Лир |
| Opus | 137 |
| Text | William Shakespeare (translated into Russian by Boris Pasternak and Samuil Marshak; adapted by Boris Slutsky and Grigori Kozintsev) |
| Language | Russian |
| Composed | June 1969 – July 27, 1970: Kurgan, Leningrad, Moscow, and Repino, Russian SFSR |
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| Duration | c. 30 minutes |
| Scoring |
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| Premiere | |
| Date | February 4, 1971 (film premiere) |
| Conductor | Dzhemal-Eddin Dalgat, Nikolai Rabinovich |
| Performers | Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra |
King Lear (Russian: Король Лир, romanized: Korol Lir), Op. 137, is a film score composed by Dmitri Shostakovich for the 1971 film King Lear by Grigori Kozintsev, based on Shakespeare's tragedy. It is Shostakovich's last completed film score.
Kozintsev and Shostakovich had collaborated on films since The New Babylon in 1929. The director had begun pre-production for King Lear in late 1965 and wanted to work with Shostakovich again, who had scored his previous film, Hamlet. Issues stemming from that film's use of music and Shostakovich's own declining health, which included a 40-day hospitalization for medical treatment at the clinic of Gavriil Ilizarov in Kurgan, delayed progress on his score for King Lear until 1970. Further delays resulting from chronic health problems, as well as concurrent work on Loyalty and his Thirteenth String Quartet, led to the composer twice suggesting to the director that he be replaced. By May 1970, Kozintsev informed Shostakovich that it was too late to find a replacement, at which time the composer began concentrated work on the score.
Of the seventy cues composed for King Lear, fewer than half were utilized in the final cut. The last cue Shostakovich composed was for a cappella chorus; the score was completed on July 27, 1970. The soundtrack was recorded by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dzhemal-Eddin Dalgat and Nikolai Rabinovich.
King Lear premiered on February 4, 1972; it was screened in the West later that year. Audiences and critics praised Shostakovich's music, which Kozintsev described to Ronald Hayman as the "real voice of Shakespeare".