A New Boris Godunov at the Met, with René Pape, Stephen Wadsworth Director, Valery Gergiev, Conductor, by Michael Miller

René Pape in the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Photo Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera


Modest Mussorgsky (music and libretto), 

Boris Godunov

Metropolitan Opera House: 10/18/2010.

Boris Godunov - René Pape
Prince Shuisky - Oleg Balashov
Pimen - Mikhail Petrenko
Grigory - Aleksandrs Antonenko
Marina - Ekaterina Semenchuk
Rangoni - Evgeny Nikitin
Varlaam - Vladimir Ognovenko
Simpleton* - Andrey Popov
Nikitich - Valerian Ruminski

Conductor - Valery Gergiev
Met Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Production - Stephen Wadsworth
Set Designer - Ferdinand Wögerbauer
Costume Designer - Moidele Bickel
Lighting Designer - Duane Schuler
Choreographer - Apostolia Tsolaki

Today science fiction seems to have replaced history as the field in which the great truths of our inner and social lives are reflected, and historicism, as it evolved in the nineteenth century, is no longer a tangible part of our world. This is not to say that the discipline has died out or even declined, but the historical perspective which for a century or so stood as the foundation of people’s perception of their world, became a branch of philosophy, and permeated fiction, poetry, and theatre is no longer so essential to us. And this, in turn, is not to say that great history is no longer being written, or that people don’t reach for historical books with some urgency, or that historical fiction is no longer popular. Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov

 is a powerful case in point. It even stands apart from the rest of nineteenth century historical opera in the seriousness of the composer-librettist’s faith in history as a potent subject in itself. In other prominent examples of this immensely popular genre — Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux,Wagner’s Rienzi, Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots, Verdi’s Don Carlo, and Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa — either political commentary of a revolutionary tinge or a manufactured love interest, both of which might be characterized as Romantic “entertainment values,” mediated between history per se and the operatic stage. Mussorgsky avoided the Romantic conventions set in motion by Schiller, Scott, Bulwer-Lytton, and Hugo, reaching out for a more sober kind of history, which would serve the Russian nation best and raise his opera to the highest intellectual level.
Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an international journal for the Arts!

Michael Miller