''The Twelve Chairs'' (russian: Двенадцать стульев, translit=Dvenadtsat stulyev, link=no) is an unfinished

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...

based on the 1928 novel '' The Twelve Chairs'' by Ilf and Petrov.Schostakowitsch Werkverzeichnis
sikorski.de. p. 100. Retrieved 12 January 2015. Shostakovich announced the work in July 1939, for the Leningrad Theater of Musical Comedy. In October that year, he assumed he would be finished with the operetta at the end of that year, but he never finished the work. The music was written in 1939, along with work on an unfinished ''Lenin Symphony'' and seven other operas, which included an opera about the

Baltic Fleet , image = Great emblem of the Baltic fleet.svg , image_size = 150 , caption = Baltic Fleet Great ensign , dates = 18 May 1703 – present , country = , allegiance = (1703–1721) (1721–1917) (1917–1922) (1922–1991)(1991–present) ...

in 1917, an unidentified Civil War opera, operatic adaptations of his music for ''Volochayev Days'', and ''

The Great Citizen ''The Great Citizen'' (russian: Великий гражданин, Velikiy grazhdanin) is a 1938 Soviet biopic film directed by Fridrikh Ermler. A fictionalized biography of Sergei Kirov (the character's name is Shakhov), the film was intended as ...

'', the novels '' A Hero of Our Time'' and ''

Masquerade Masquerade or Masquerader may refer to: Events * Masquerade ball, a costumed dance event * Masquerade ceremony, a rite or cultural event in many parts of the world, especially the Caribbean and Africa * Masqueraders, the performers in the West ...

'' by Lermontov, '' How the Steel Was Tempered'' by Ostrovsky, and incidental music for Romain Rolland's play ''Liluli''. Only a little music from ''The Twelve Chairs'' has survived from this period of false starts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twelve Chairs, The Operas by Dmitri Shostakovich Russian-language operas 1939 operas Operas based on novels Unfinished operas Operas Operettas Ilf and Petrov