Based on Gogols novella, "Nos" – "The Nose", a key work of the 20th century. A musical tour de force, in which Shostakovich lets different musical and aesthetic forms collide in a playful yet radical manner.

Quotations and popular ballads are to be found beside rhythmically complex and atonal sequences. "Nos" contains more than 80 solo parts as well as the first drum solo in music literature.

For the production in Koblenz designer Petra Strass devised a system of suspended red walls allowing for a rapid succession of intimate small chambers and vast halls. Applying projections these spaces where defined more concisely, eventually to culminate in accordance with the kafkaesk narrative.

A leitmotiv permeates all criticisms regarding the rare productions of Dimitri Shostakovitchs opera "The Nose" written in 1930: this opera is played far too rarely. And that is certainly the conclusion most visitors will have reached after the highly acclaimed premiere in Koblenz.The audience experienced a true celebration of theatre at its finest.

Rhein Zeitung