Boris Godunov, a legendary opera by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, is returning to Moscow’s newly-remodeled historic building of the Bolshoi Theater, which has staged the opera’s renewed production since 1948.
Boris Godunov, a legendary opera by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, is returning to Moscow’s newly-remodeled historic building of the Bolshoi Theater, which has staged the opera’s renewed production since 1948.
Boris Godunov is based on the eponymous drama by Alexander Pushkin. The idea of composing the opera was suggested to Mussorgsky by his friend and professor of Russian history and language, Vladimir Nikolsky. Photo: Alexander Naumenko, left, as chronicler-hermit Pimen, and Vitaly Tarashchenko as Pretender Grigory in the opera Boris Godunov.
Preparing his own libretto, Mussorgsky focused on two subjects, namely the tragedy of the Russian people and the personal tragedy of Boris Godunov. The opera was first premiered in 1888, when Rimsky-Korsakov’s edition was presented to the public at the Bolshoi Theater.
Following its first performance, the opera was soon withdrawn from the Bolshoi’s repertoire, returning later in 1901 starring Russia’s greatest opera singers Feodor Chaliapin as Boris and Leonid Sobinov as Pretender Grigory. The 1948 stage production involved the outstanding professionals of the Bolshoi, such as music conductor Nikolai Golovanov, stage designer Fyodor Fedorovsky and choreographer Leonid Lavrovsky.
“It’s a museum piece, but it’s worth the preservation. Boris is the quintessential Russian opera,” the Guardian wrote in 2006 when the Bolshoi’s production of Boris Godunov was brought over from Moscow to London.
The title role of Boris Godunov is performed by the Bolshoi’s bass Mikhail Kazakov. “I have performed this part for a long time and first sang it in the Bolshoi’s production at the age of 26,” Kazakov says. “Interestingly, I performed this part just before the theater’s historic stage was closed for reconstruction, and now I am lucky to have the opportunity to perform it opening the opera season at the historic building after a long break,” he adds.
Marat Gali (Galiakhmetov) as the Yurodivy, or the Holy Fool, in the opera Boris Godunov.
Andrei Grigoryev as the Clerk in the Boyars’ Council in the opera Boris Godunov.
A scene from Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov staged at the Bolshoi Theater’s historic building.
The opera’s current production, in its Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov edition and arrangement except the St. Basil’s Cathedral scene orchestrated by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, involved the Bolshoi Theater’s music director and chief conductor Vasily Sinaisky, conductor Pavel Sorokin, stage director Igor Ushakov, stage designers Alyona Pikalova and Yelena Zaitseva, and choreographer Yekaterina Mironova.
During the opera’s performance at the Bolshoi, conductor Pavel Sorokin will lead the orchestra. “I started to listen to this great opera as a child, and this helped me in this work,” Sorokin says. “The opera’s main theme is Russia. As for the edition by Rimsky-Korsakov, an outstanding composer and master of orchestration, I think the main thing he aimed at was to express the genius of Mussorgsky,” the conductor says.
