Synopsis
Act 1
Introduction
While being shaved, Kovalyov informs his barber Ivan Yakovlevitch that his hands stink.
Scene 1
Ivan Yakovlevitch awakes in his shop to the smell of his wife Praskovya Osipovna baking bread. Cutting into a fresh roll for breakfast, he hits something hard with his knife: a nose. Praskovya Osipovna shrieks at him, wondering whether his predilection for holding noses while shaving men’s faces contributed to the accidental shaving off of this nose; he wonders whether his drunkenness is to blame. When he says that he will wrap the nose, put it in a corner, and deal with it later, Praskovya Osipovna berates him incessantly to leave and dispose of the nose.
Scene 2
At the wharf, Ivan Yakovlevitch tries to drop the nose, only to be seen by a policeman. He picks up the nose again and continues to run around the congested city, questioned by acquaintances he sees along the way. Eventually, the Police Inspector stops him and demands to know what he is doing standing by the river…
Entr’acte (Percussion)
Scene 3
Kovalyov awakes in his apartment and wishes to inspect a zit that appeared on his nose the night before. He calls his manservant Ivan to bring him a mirror, but his nose is not there! Ivan pinches him to help him see that he is not sleeping. Upset, Kovalyov dresses and departs to see the Police Inspector about the disappearance of his nose.
Scene 4
On the way to the police, Kovalyov enters the Kazan Cathedral, with choral music echoing from a distance. Covering his lack-of-nose with a handkerchief, he spots his Nose praying in the church—and dressed as a higher-ranked civil servant than Kovalyov himself! His confrontation with his own nose is a splendid failure, because the Nose does not understand Kovalyov’s ranting. Kovalyov becomes especially emotional when it occurs to him that he cannot appear so disfigured in front of lovely young ladies. Momentarily distracted by the entrance of a little old lady, Kovalyov does not notice the Nose’s departure from the cathedral.
Act II
Introduction
Kovalyov arrives at the house of the Police Inspector, but he has just missed him. He directs his cab driver to the newspaper offices.
Scene 5
Kovalyov enters the newspaper bureau to the sounds of a man leaving notice about a hefty reward (100 rubles) for the person who can find the Countess’ missing dog. Kovalyov must wait for the man to finish before he can speak to the clerk on duty about printing a classified ad to help him apprehend his nose. The distracted clerk does not understand Kovalyov’s ad. When Kovalyov insists that it is his own nose that is missing, the clerk laughs at him. Despite the ridicule, Kovalyov describes the hardships of being without a nose: unlike missing a toe, which can be hidden in a shoe, a nose is a very obvious loss. He breaks down and eventually sobs while describing the humiliation he would suffer if one of his female acquaintances were to see him this way. The clerk decides that he cannot print Kovalyov’s ad, because the newspaper would lose its reputation; in the end, it is a doctor’s problem that Kovalyov does not have a nose. Desperate, Kovalyov removes the handkerchief and shows the official the smooth place where his nose should be. The official suggests that Kovalyov publish his story in a different publication as a general interest story, and then he (insensitively) offers Kovalyov a pinch of snuff. Outraged, Kovalyov storms off.
A chorus of street-cleaners recites snippets of classified ads.
Entr’acte (Orchestra)
Scene 6
Ivan sits at home singing a love song and playing the balalaika. Kovalyov returns home, has no patience for Ivan’s playing, and storms into his room to lament his bizarre and nonsensical loss.
Act III
Scene 7
In the outskirts of St. Petersburg, the Police Inspector arranges ten policemen for an ambush to apprehend the Nose. A coachman naps, waiting for the people he will transport. The scene slowly fills with more and more characters: travelers, a family, old acquaintances, an old lady and companions, and a bread-seller. The policemen are distracted by the woman bread-seller, and they drag her off stage, ostensibly to molest her. As the coach fills with its passengers and begins to pull away, the Nose runs towards it and startles the horse. Policemen and passers-by seize the Nose and beat him until he returns to his normal, small size.
Scene 8
The Police Inspector returns Kovalyov’s now normally-sized nose to him, explaining that he has also imprisoned Ivan Yakovlevitch for taking the nose. The Police Inspector leaves, but not before being paid amply by Kovalyov for his services (“The funds for my son’s education are completely insufficient,” he states.) Kovalyov’s joy at being reunited is short-lived: his nose will not stick to his face. Ivan fetches a doctor, who assures Kovalyov that he is better off preserving and selling his nose as an oddity than he is trying to re-affix the appendage.
Kovalyov’s friend Yaryzhkin arrives as the doctor leaves. When Yarizhkin asks what has happened to the nose, Kovalyov explains that it must have been done by the staff officer’s wife Podtochina. When Kovalyov informed Podtochina that he was not interested in marrying her daughter for at least five more years, this must have angered her, and she must have arranged for witches to charm his nose away—the only way to explain the suddenness and painlessness of the nose’s amputation. The two men write a letter to Podtochina to confront her about the situation.
Podtochina and her daughter receive the letter and read it out loud…
Yaryzhkin and Kovalyov receive Podtochina’s polite and exonerating reply, reiterating her deep desire for Kovalyov to marry her daughter. Yaryzhkin summarizes: “Only the devil will sort this out.”
Intermezzo
A crowd of gentlemen, students, and other passers-by gathers when someone sights the Nose wandering through the Summer Garden. The mob runs to the gardens, where even a group of eunuchs tries to see the promenading Nose. The police arrive to break up the crowd.
Epilogue
Scene 9
Kovalyov awakes to find the nose re-attached to his face, and manservant Ivan witnesses its reappearance. The barber Ivan Yakovlevitch arrives to shave Kovalyov, but Kovalyov does not allow the barber to pinch his nose while shaving him.
Scene 10
Kovalyov wanders around town greeting acquaintances and showing them that his nose has reappeared. He encounters Podtochina and her daughter and tells them a joke; she invites him to dinner. As the women walk away, Kovalyov divulges that he is still completely uninterested in marrying the daughter. Immediately, he sidles over to a woman and makes advances on her…
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