vishnevskaya was married to the cellist mstislav rostropovich from 1955 until his death in 2007. her husband, as well as being a great cellist and conductor, was also an excellent pianist and he accompanied her for her recitals. they were very close friends of shostakovich and benjamin britten and performed a lot of their works. she made many recordings including the main part in shostakovich's opera lady macbeth of the mtsensk district and in britten's "war requiem". she had not been allowed to take part in the first performance of the "war requiem" because the soviet politicians would not let her sing together with the baritone dietrich fischer-dieskau because he was german.