The end of the first act of Z mrtvého domu, From the House of the Dead.

Luka complains to Aljeja about the rotten quality of thread they have in the prison, then he goes on to tell a story from his earlier prison experiences. He incited his fellow prisoners against the major who was particularly violent, the major would claim that he was the Tsar of the prison, he said he was God! But Luka had a knife in his hand, he went up to the governor and asked him "how can you be Tsar and God? God is omnipotent and you are only governor by the Tsar's grace" the governor thought he was being cocky but Luka stuck the knife in his belly. But he got a terrible beating and then they called the hangman, Luka though he was going to die. "And did you die?" asks the old prisoner, "Idiot" replies Luka and he walks away.
Goryanchickov crawls in, half dead and stunned from his beating, Aljeja gives him his glasses, all he wants to do is crawl into a corner and hide.

Patrice Chéreau's superb production conducted by Pierre Boulez

singers: Olaf Bär, Jiri Sulzenko, john Mark Ainsley, Eric Stokloßa, Stefan Margita, Peter Straka, Vladmir Chmelo, Heinz Zednik, Jan Galla, Tomas Krejcirik, Martin Barta, Gerd Grochowski,