Wednesday 5 November 2014

Mariinsky Opera perform Boris Godunov original version

Mussorgsky Boris Godunov
Concert performance

Mariinsky Opera
Valery Gergiev conductor
Mussorgsky's gravestone, Tikhvin Cemetery

Mikhail Kazakov Boris Godunov
Mikhail Petrenko Pimen
Evgeny Akimov Prince Shuisky
Alexei Markov Shchelkalov
Andrei Popov Simpleton
Tiffin Boys Choir

Barbican Hall, London, 3 November 2014

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This, the most Russian of all operas, was premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1874.  And now it was the Mariinsky Opera under the direction of Valery Gergiev that performed it as part of their Barbican residency. 
Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov was Tsar of Russia from 1598 - 1605, having been a counsellor under the equally famous Ivan the Terrible.  His reign was overshadowed by the rise of a pretender to the throne and dark rumours of the Tsar having murdered one of Ivan's sons.  Alexander Pushkin wrote a tragedy Boris Godunov which Mussorgsky adopted for his opera. Mussorgsky penned the libretto himself and it is an extended examination of the soul of Russia, brimming with suffering and resignation.  Its troubled commentator is the Simpleton, who mourns Russia's sorrow and its entry into a "long dark night".

Mussorgsky first took up the idea in 1868 and after a tortuous 6 years of working and re-working it was finalised and premiered.  The reception was ecstatic, with the composer reportedly taking 18 curtain calls from the packed Mariinsky Theatre.  The tangled history of the opera's composition has left many different versions in existence with some scenes regularly cut or re-ordered, and that is without even talking about Rimsky-Korsakov's controversial "improvement" of the orchestration.

It was the original 1869 version that the Mariinsky brought to the concert.  This was the version Mussorgsky submitted to the Russian censors, who then demanded changes (notable that a dramatic soprano role be included) prior to its 1874 premiere.  Inevitably in a concert performance the absence of staging was more keenly felt in the theatrical crowd scenes than the dialogues and monologue elsewhere.  Even so, the stage set up could easily have been better, with the singers having to contend with a forest of 10 seats and music stands, most of which were simply not required. Some, such as Kazakov, fully acted out their role around the stands.  Others, slightly bizarrely, stuck to their music as if in an oratorio.

At the very opening of the opera and his coronation as Tsar, Boris is beset by
Bass Feodor Chaliapin as Boris Godunov
the knowledge of his guilt.  This intensely psychological figure is one of the finest tragic characters in opera and undoubtedly the greatest of all Russian bass roles.  Here the challenge was taken on by Mikhail Kazakov who was at pains to really sing the role, emphasising its lyrical dimension as well as weight and emotion.  Only in the heroic moments such as the Coronation scene was the relatively light weight of the voice a limitation.  Kazakov‘s Boris was keen to behave well as a ruler despite his guilt, and was profoundly concerned that his children not bear responsibility for his crimes.

Around the central character are arrayed various classic Russian types: the holy monk Pimen, and the holy fool Simpleton who bears obvious similarities to characters such as Prince Myshkin in Dostoevsky's The Idiot.  Most important of all are the chorus representing the long-suffering Russian people.

Of the other roles, the Pimen of Mikhail Petrenko and the Simpleton of Andrey Popov were both near ideal.  Petrenko had a very natural weight and nobility and brought a subtle light and shade that enlivened the long narrations in the second and fourth acts.  Popov created a memorable intensity of atmosphere in the scene with Boris outside St Basil’s cathedral.  The chorus were idiomatic and committed throughout as would be expected.


The Mariinsky Orchestra were the solid base of this performance.  Their body language suggested they were less than thrilled about the evening, but there was nothing half-hearted about the music-making.  Valery Gergiev looked similarly disinterested, but his conducting was superb, particularly noticeable in his masterly pacing of the Prologue.


With the awkward stage-management, the performance was always on the back foot in creating and maintaining atmosphere.  It was thus all the greater testament to the contributions of Kazakov, Popov and the chorus in particular that so much of this evening was so electric.


Boris Godunov as it wasn't at the Barbican.  Here a scene from the Mariinsky Theatre - the stage production by legendary Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky



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