We’re back at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden for this week’s Sunday Opera (7/26 3:00 p.m.) and Modest Mussorgsky’s only completed opera “Boris Godunov” which had its world premiere in 1871 after being rejected in 1870 because it had no female roles. Mussorgsky rewrote the opera, and when it was staged, it used the recycled sets and costumes from Pushkin’s play (written in blank verse) which had premiered in 1870.
The libretto is by Mussorgsky and it follows Boris Godunov's (Sir Bryn Terfel) rise to power, his crippling guilt over murdering the true royal heir, and his tragic descent into madness.
Boris is crowned Tsar of Russia in 1598, but he feels uneasy and fears divine because it’s rumored that he arranged the murder of the young rightful heir, Tsarevich Dmitri, to win the throne.
At that same time In a quiet monastery, an old monk named Pimen (Adam Palka) writes down Russian history, which inspires a young novice named Grigory (Jamez McCorkle) to run away and pretend to be the dead prince Dmitri.
Grigory, disguised as Dmitri, raises an army to march on Moscow where Tsar Boris is losing his sanity because he is haunted by terrible visions and believes he sees the ghost of the murdered Dmitri.
As the fake Dmitri approaches with his forces, a broken and delirious Boris prays for forgiveness, says goodbye to his own son, and collapses and dies after being told by Pimen that Dmitri is going to become a saint as a blind man has had his vision restored after praying to him.
The Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera are conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.
The opera is performed in one act.
After the opera, stay tuned for more music of Mussorgsky (and a little Prokofiev) to fill our afternoon together.
We’ll begin with Prokofiev’s incidental music for Pushkin’s play version of “Boris Godunov.” Even though the score was rejected by the Russian authorities that thought it was abject “Formalism.” Thankfully, Prokofiev kept his score, turned it into a suite, and we’ll hear a lovely production featuring soloists, chorus, and orchestra.
We’ve also programmed three pieces by Mussorgsky that are more familiar although they are in interesting arrangements.
Mussorgsky’s song cycle “The Nursery” will be featured as an orchestral piece in an arrangement by Peter Breiner who leads the New Zealand Symphony.
Because Mussorgsky completed so few pieces, we don’t have a huge catalogue from which to choose, so the last two pieces will be very familiar, but the first is in an arrangement that you may find interesting. We’ll hear “Pictures at an Exhibition” performed by the Brass Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in an arrangement by Elgar Howarth. Lutz Koehler conducts this performance.
Our final piece is possibly the best known work “St. John’s Eve on Bald Mountain” which we probably would not know if it weren’t for Prokofiev who re-arranged the work for orchestra after it had been rejected by the Russian authorities, abandoned by Mussorgsky, and never performed during his lifetime. Her we have the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ogan Durjan.
