[Met Performance] CID:270010



Boris Godunov
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, September 21, 1982

Debut : Darren Nimnicht




Boris Godunov (213)
Modest Mussorgsky | Modest Mussorgsky
Boris Godunov
Martti Talvela

Prince Shuisky
Robert Nagy

Pimen
Paul Plishka

Grigory
Wieslaw Ochman

Marina
Mignon Dunn

Rangoni
John Darrenkamp

Varlaam
Donald Gramm

Simpleton
James Atherton

Nikitich
Andrij Dobriansky

Mitiukha
James Courtney

Shchelkalov
Arthur Thompson

Innkeeper
Geraldine Decker

Missail
Charles Anthony

Officer
William Fleck

Xenia
Betsy Norden

Feodor
Charles Coleman

Nurse
Batyah Godfrey Ben-David

Boyar in Attendance/Khrushchov
Emil Filip

Lavitsky
Darren Nimnicht [Debut]

Chernikovsky
Anthony Laciura


Conductor
James Conlon


Production
August Everding

Set Designer
Ming Cho Lee

Costume Designer
Peter J. Hall

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Choreographer
George Balanchine

Stage Director
Phebe Berkowitz





Boris Godunov received eighteen performances this season.

FUNDING:
Revival a gift of the Panwy Foundation

Review 1:

Andrew Porter in the New Yorker

THE Met's "Boris Godunov," rich yet sombre in its staging, directed by August Everding, has the same integrity and coherence. This season's revival is conducted by James Conlon and is his finest achievement: broadly paced, grand, yet poetic and emotional, with instrumental lines and colors direct in their eloquence. The edition used is a conflation of Mussorgsky's first and second versions, containing more music than the composer ever intended to be played in a single evening. The result could be unwieldy but proves not so, because Ming Cho Lee's scenes change swiftly and the "dramatic iconography" ? in which Gil Wechsler's lighting has an important part ? is so striking. But unless a Princess Marina smoother and more seductive of voice than Mignon Dunn was and a less boring Rangoni than John Darrenkamp can be found, the Polish act ? Mussorgsky's afterthought ? might as well be omitted. The time gained could be used to restore passages missing from the study scene. The Kromy Forest scene is this season played without some cuts that disfigured it before.

Martti Talvela is a Boris without the bite of his great predecessors, but in his slightly soft-grained way he is imposing. His histrionics looked calculated; one noticed him preparing to overturn the heavy table, claw down the curtains, take a spectacular final tumble. Wieslaw Ochman was a strong, fine-drawn Grigory, though the fountain duet needed a sweeter timbre. There were good performances from Robert Nagy (Shuisky), Paul Plishka (Pimen), Donald Gramm (Varlaam), and several others. James Atherton's Simpleton should have been more simply played and sung. The chorus's curious logrolling exercises in the final episodes suggested that rehearsal time had run short. But, all in all, this was a noble and stirring account of the piece.



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