Metropolitan Opera Archives

Modest Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" is a deeply moving operatic experience. The Metropolitan Opera's current revival, which opened last week in New York City, does full justice to this brooding tale of the rise and fall of the guilt-ridden Tsar Boris and the ascension to power of the Pretender Dimitri. To this reviewer, who attended the second performance on Friday, it is the Metropolitan Opera at its best: each character, however small or large, is etched in fine dramatic detail, each role is sung with commitment and energy, and each scene, designed by Ming Cho Lee, is realized with careful attention to mood and drama. It is opera as it should be. It is an experience not to be missed.

"Boris Godunov," which has more basses than Shea Stadium, is a field day for the lower registers of the human voice. Finnish bass Martti Talvela once again reigned in the title role of Tsar Boris. His is a multifaceted portrayal: a tender father to his children Feodor and Zenia (beautifully done by David Cole and Betsy Norden), an introspective monarch and a hallucinating child murderer. Though history absolves the real Boris of the crime, Pushkin's play, on which the Mussorgsky opera is based, has Boris prey to harrowing guilt for the murder of Dimitri, heir to the throne of Russia. Talvela has a marvelous bass voice and a riveting stage presence. The fall and death of Boris are hastened by a number of factors. The monk Pimen describes the murder of the child Dimitri to another monk Grigory, setting in motion the latter's plans to pretend to be the resurrected heir and take power away from Boris. Bass Paul Plishka sang Pimen with a rich, smooth and inflected voice, while tenor Vladimir Popov was bold and brazen as Grigory/Dimitri.

Bass Sergei Koptchak scored a big hit as Varlaam, the drunken vagabond monk. His disorderly manner, like a character from Dostoyevsky, and his rich singing made the scene at the inn another high spot of the evening. Here, Varlaam's rousing tale of Ivan the Terrible's victory at Kazan was vivid and exciting and well received by the audience. Charles Anthony played his buddy, Missail. Along the path of the Pretender Dimitri's rise to power lies the ambitious Polish Princess Marina, sung effectively by mezzo soprano Stefka Mineva. With an expressive voice, Mineva was appropriately haughty yet calculating and deferential in her seduction of the Pretender. Her quest is encouraged by the Jesuit Rangoni, sung by Franz Mazura, another bass. Mazura was sufficiently sinister and omnipresent. Tenor Robert Nagy nicely repeated his role of Prince Shuisky, who first proclaims Boris and then undermines him and aggravates his guilt by bringing news of the rise of Dimitri. The remainder of the large cast was excellent.

It has often been said that the "people" of Russia are really the protagonist in "Boris Godunov." I have always thought this a noble, but on the whole silly, notion: the people are led around throughout the opera like a mop following its handle. Regardless, the choral work in "Boris Godunov" is magnificent and the Metropolitan Opera Chorus wholeheartedly rose to the occasion. Obvious care was taken to detail individual characteristics of chorus members.

Conductor James Conlon once again showed a complete mastery of Mussorgsky's massive score. Conlon moved things along without sacrifice of phrase or detail. Very fine work indeed. Mussorgsky's scores are used as opposed to the famous revision by Rimsky Korsakov. The craggy dissonances in the score and the naturalistic wedding to the Russian language make a strong argument for "Boris Godunov" as one of the first operas of the 20th century. Most remarkable for an opera of the 1870s. Second, the production is sung in Russian. The Met's "Boris Godunov" is opera as it should be - an experience not to be missed.

Search by season: 1986-87

Search by title: Boris Godunov,

Met careers