The giant tap dancing noses of Shostakovich’s ‘The Nose’

Giant tap dancing noses… an entire row of them! First performed in 1929, this fantastical troupe is from Dmitry Shostakovich‘s The Nose. The production above is by The Royal Opera from the autumn of 2016:

Shostakovich was only 20 when he began writing The Nose, his operatic debut. He turned to a tiny short story by Gogol: an absurdist satire, where a civil servant’s errant nose launches its owner on a ludicrous battle against both nose and the authorities, as bureaucratic processes break down in the face of so unusual a problem. Gogol’s surrealist fable fired Shostakovich’s imagination, and he responded with a work of exuberant energy, full of musical jokes and grotesque parody…

The trailer for the The Royal Opera production sets up the story:

Watch more tap dancing, including The Nicholas Brothers in the greatest dance number ever filmed. Plus: Rowan Atkinson’s Invisible Drum Kit.