Modest Mussorgsky

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.

This week's opera is Mussorgsky's last "completed" work centering on political and religious conflicts in Russia in the 17th century.

Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” is better known in its versions by Rimsky-Korsakov (1896 & 1908) and the final version (for now) by Dmitriy Shostakovich (1940), but this week’s version is that of the original piece finished by Mussorgsky in 1869 which is closest to the drama by Pushkin, contains recitatives, a few scenes that have been highly altered, and is performed in one act.