[Met Performance] CID:350884



Boris Godunov
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, January 23, 2004

Debut : Semyon Bychkov, Vladimir Matorin, Tanvir Gopal, Gioacchino Li Vigni, Matthew Lord




Boris Godunov (258)
Modest Mussorgsky | Modest Mussorgsky
Boris Godunov
James Morris

Prince Shuisky
David Kuebler

Pimen
Vladimir Matorin [Debut]

Grigory
Sergej Larin

Marina
Irina Mishura

Rangoni
Sergei Leiferkus

Varlaam
Vladimir Ognovenko

Simpleton
Charles Reid

Nikitich
Richard Vernon

Mitiukha
Peter Volpe

Shchelkalov
Richard Zeller

Innkeeper
Wendy White

Missail
Allan Glassman

Officer
Jeffrey Wells

Xenia
Lyubov Petrova

Feodor
Tanvir Gopal [Debut]

Nurse
Jane Shaulis

Khrushchov
Gioacchino Li Vigni [Debut]

Lavitsky
Richard Hobson

Chernikovsky
Matthew Lord [Debut]

Boyar in Attendance
Roy Cornelius Smith

Orchestration
Paval Lamm


Conductor
Semyon Bychkov [Debut]


Production
August Everding

Set Designer
Ming Cho Lee

Costume Designer
Peter J. Hall

Choreographer
George Balanchine

Stage Director
David Kneuss





Boris Godunov received seven performances this season.
Production photos of Boris Godunov by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.

Review 1:

Justin Davidson in Newsday
Finding Majesty In a Killer Role

Many of the works in the Metropolitan Opera's catalog are too slight for that spacious stage and have to be artificially inflated. Not so Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov," which, with its sovereign worthy of Shakespeare, its revolution and religious war, seems tailored for the Met. There is something so thrillingly operatic ? so irresistibly big ? about seeing a whole society's machinery grind to music, a pretender march on Moscow and an emperor roll down a flight of stairs.

The emperor in question is the Tsar Boris, sung with inimitable majesty by James Morris. Like "Boris," he truly belongs at the Met. His rich, copper baritone resonates best in spacious precincts, and he wore the Tsar's velvet robes and gray beard as if they were his everyday gear.

Boris is a guilty and despicable man, having killed a 7-year-old in order to gain the throne, but Morris made it clear how such a ruler could have a hold on the psyche of millions. His stage presence was charismatic, his singing solemn, sonorous and precise without becoming heavy, and his torment felt epic and understated at the same time.

The Met has taken advantage of the post-Soviet wealth of singers to deepen its explorations of Russian opera, and these days "Boris" is more authentic than ever. Sergei Larin sang the role of the Catholic pretender Dimitri with fanfare and bells in his bright, metallic tenor. Irina Mishura was glittery and marvelously cold as the grasping Polish princess Marina, who likes the image of herself redecorating the Kremlin. Sergei Leiferkus had a terrible night as Rangoni, the slightly crazed priest egging Dimitri on to win Moscow for the true Church, but when his throat heals, he should again sound suitably oily and dangerous in a role he has been singing for years.

This populous opera is virtually free of sympathetic characters. Vladimir Matorin made his Met debut in a powerfully creepy performance as the Orthodox monk Pimen, Vladimir Ognovenko roused rabble brilliantly as the itinerant alcoholic monk Varlaam and Charles Reid was moving as the Simpleton, the holy fool who doesn't know better than to call the emperor a killer to his face.

The immensely valuable conductor Semyon Bychkov made his belated company debut, extracting every gram of sumptuousness, atmosphere and drama from Mussorgky's much-maligned original orchestration. This is, among other things, an opera about starving peasants, and the chorus gnashed and thundered thrillingly, making revolution seem musically foreordained.

August Everding's 1971 production has passed from secondhand to antique since "Boris" last appeared, but the company's in-house director David Kneuss has the milling and migrations of people onstage running smoothly, and he helps to keep a very long opera feeling fleet.



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