The Gadfly

Composer: SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri
  • Shostakovich score to the film Ovod (The Gadfly, 1955) is his Op. 97. With help from Levon Atovmain, he extracted a symphonic suite from the film score in 1965.1
  • The film was based on a novel by Irish author Ethel Voynich, which explores the 19th C. Italian struggle for independence from Austrian rule.2
  • This number we know as “Romance” was entitled “Youth” in Shostakovich’s score.3
  • Because the film was set in Italy, Shostakovich’s score takes inspiration from bel canto and Romantic Italian composers.4

Sources

  1.  Laurel Fay and David Fanning, “Shostakovich, Dmitry,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 29, 2020,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052560. 
  2.  Laurel Fay and David Fanning, “Shostakovich, Dmitry,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 29, 2020,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052560. 
  3. Ibid.
  4.  “Dmitri Shostakovich: The Gadfly,” Classic FM, accessed January 29, 2020, https://www.classicfm.com/composers/shostakovich/music/gadfly/. 

Cut IDs

18482, 18976, 40521, 40973, 42286