<P> In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shostakovich worked at TRAM, a proletarian youth theatre . Although he did little work in this post, it shielded him from ideological attack . Much of this period was spent writing his opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, which was first performed in 1934 . It was immediately successful, on both popular and official levels . It was described as "the result of the general success of Socialist construction, of the correct policy of the Party", and as an opera that "could have been written only by a Soviet composer brought up in the best tradition of Soviet culture". </P> <P> Shostakovich married his first wife, Nina Varzar, in 1932 . Initial difficulties led to a divorce in 1935, but the couple soon remarried when Nina became pregnant with their first child . </P> <P> Shostakovich fell from official favour in 1936 . The year began with a series of attacks on him in Pravda, in particular an article entitled, "Muddle Instead of Music". Shostakovich was away on a concert tour in Arkhangelsk when he heard news of the first Pravda article . Two days before the article was published on the evening of 28 January, a friend had advised Shostakovich to attend the Bolshoi Theatre production of Lady Macbeth . When he arrived, he saw that Joseph Stalin and the Politburo were there . In letters written to his friend Ivan Sollertinsky, Shostakovich recounted the horror with which he watched as Stalin shuddered every time the brass and percussion played too loudly . Equally horrifying was the way Stalin and his companions laughed at the love - making scene between Sergei and Katerina . Eyewitness accounts testify that Shostakovich was "white as a sheet" when he went to take his bow after the third act . </P> <P> The article condemned Lady Macbeth as formalist, "coarse, primitive and vulgar". Consequently, commissions began to fall off, and his income fell by about three - quarters . Even Soviet music critics who had praised the opera were forced to recant in print, saying they "failed to detect the shortcomings of Lady Macbeth as pointed out by Pravda". Shortly after the "Muddle Instead of Music" article, Pravda published another, "Ballet Falsehood", that criticized Shostakovich's ballet The Limpid Stream . Shostakovich did not expect this second article because the general public and press already accepted this music as "democratic"--that is, tuneful and accessible . However, Pravda criticized The Limpid Stream for incorrectly displaying peasant life on the collective farm . </P>

Modern artists have rejected romanticism and are more influenced by classical works