Chan 3007 book cover.qxd 15/10/07 10:12 am Page 1 Chan 3007 MUSSORGSKY CHANDOS Highlights O PERA IN BORIS GODUNOV ENGLISH JOHN TOMLINSON C H O R U S O F O P E R A N O R T H • E N G L I S H N O R T H E R N P H I L H A R M O N I A PAUL DANIEL PETE MOOES FOUNDATION CHAN 3007 BOOK.qxd 15/10/07 10:17 am Page 2 Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) Boris Godunov (based on the initial version of 1869) Libretto by the composer, based on Pushkin’s historical tragedy of the same name and Karamzin’s History of the Russian State English translation by David Lloyd-Jones AKG Prince Shuisky .................................................................................................... Stuart Kale tenor Boris, Tsar of Russia...................................................................................... John Tomlinson bass Varlaam, a vagabond monk ................................................................................ Clive Bayley bass Xenia, Boris’s daughter ................................................................................ Joan Rodgers soprano Feodor, Tsarevich ................................................................................ Susan Parry mezzo-soprano The old Nurse .............................................................................. Yvonne Howard mezzo-soprano Simpleton ........................................................................................................ Mark Curtis tenor Pimen, monk and chronicler ............................................................................ Matthew Best bass Boyar .............................................................................................................................. Brian Cookson tenor Mitiukha ................................................................................................................ Edward Thornton baritone Shchelkalov .............................................................................................................. Stephen Dawson baritone Chorus of Opera North Martin Fitzpatrick chorus master Choristers of Leeds Parish Church Modest Mussorgsky Simon Lindley chorus master English Northern Philharmonia David Greed leader Paul Daniel 3 CHAN 3007 BOOK.qxd 15/10/07 10:17 am Page 4 Coronation Scene [page 36] 8:04 1 Shuisky ‘Long life to our Tsar Boris Feodorovich!’ 4:05 Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov 2 Boris ‘My soul is sad’ 3:59 Varlaam’s Song [page 37] Few operas have had such a remarkable history (arguably the most Russian of operas) on the 3 Varlaam ‘By the walls of Kazan the mighty fortress’ 2:30 as Mussorgsky’s masterpiece Boris Godunov. It French stage. exists in no less than three complete versions The work on which Mussorgsky based his Apartments Scene [page 38] 27:59 by the composer himself, as well as Boris Godunov was the drama (1825) of the 4 Xenia ‘Ah, my dear betrothed’ 7:26 posthumous editions and orchestrations by same name by the great Russian national poet 5 Boris ‘I stand supreme in power’ 5:14 Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich and others. Alexander Pushkin. For six years, publication 6 Boris ‘What is it?’ 11:53 In Mussorgsky’s own lifetime (i.e. until 1881) of the play was forbidden by the censor, and the opera was staged just twenty-one times, the first staging had to wait until 1870, i.e. the 7 Boris ‘Ugh! Give me air!’ 3:26 and then for more than a decade it languished very time that Mussorgsky had just completed St Basil Scene [page 42] 11:16 almost totally neglected, despite a notable the first draft of his opera; in fact, some of the revival at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in sets originally designed for the play were later 8 Men ‘What, has the service finished?’ 6:12 1888 with the then-celebrated bass Bogomir re-used for the opera. Pushkin had set out to 9 Women ‘Merciful, gracious Tsar’ 5:04 Korsov in the title role. The opera’s meteoric write a realistic drama on Shakespearean lines: rise to fame began with the publication of the three unities of French classical drama Death Scene [page 44] 24:20 Rimsky-Korsakov’s edition of the opera in were abandoned entirely, so too was the lofty 10 Boyars ‘Sad, Shuisky is not with us’ 6:39 1896, followed two years later by a production tone of Racine and Corneille, and the usual 11 Pimen ‘A humble hermit’ 7:10 given at the Moscow Private Opera with the lines of Alexandrine verse were replaced by 12 Boris ‘Farewell, my son’ 10:31 young Fyodor Shalyapin. From this moment blank verse. Many contemporaries believed TT 74:43 onwards, the tragic figure of the tormented that Pushkin’s Boris Godunov was a bold tsar became inextricably linked with the name experiment – a dramatic work not actually of the legendary bass, and the opera scored a intended for the stage. The excerpts featured on this disc are taken from Opera resounding success in the opera theatres of The radical aspects of Pushkin’s work almost North’s highly successful production of Boris Godunov, Russia, and then at the Grand Opéra in Paris certainly attracted Mussorgsky, but in a Russia first performed in 1989. during Diaghilev’s Saison Russe in 1908. just emerging from the strictly authoritarian Perhaps even Mussorgsky himself would have era of Nicholas I, the subject was still been surprised at the triumph of his work something of a political ‘hot potato’. 4 5 CHAN 3007 BOOK.qxd 15/10/07 10:17 am Page 6 Mussorgsky composed the first draft of Boris to go back in time to the reign of Ivan IV (Ivan historical events. The action unfolds in a series Scene 2 Godunov (consisting of seven scenes) in the Terrible), who had sought to consolidate of loosely assembled scenes, which take us The square of the Moscow Kremlin, 1868–69, but it was rejected by the the power of the throne by ruthlessly curbing from Moscow to the Lithuanian frontier. One between the two Cathedrals of the Directorate of Imperial Theatres. He made the influence of the boyars. When Ivan died in of Mussorgsky’s greatest achievements in this Assumption and the Archangel Michael. radical changes, but the opera was turned 1584 he was succeeded by his feeble-minded opera is that he created a realistic drama: it is Six months later down a second time in 1871. Only in January son Fyodor, who had married Irina Godunova peopled not merely by the great and the Boris is crowned and makes his first 1874 did the opera finally see the footlights of (the sister of Boris). As Fyodor was childless, famous, but also by ordinary folk, vagabond appearance as Tsar. He acknowledges the the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, where conspiracies among the boyars to secure the monks and Jesuits. This gives the work a people’s acclamation, but his soul is filled with it received a mixed reception and bitterly succession were rife, but the real power was feeling of breadth and panoramic foreboding. (Tracks 1 - 2 ) divided Russian musical opinion. already concentrated in the hands of Boris, inclusiveness, but more importantly, through The appearance of the opera coincided who effectively ruled as regent. The death of the quality of the music and a striving for Scene 3 with a wave of nationalism, which became Fyodor in 1598 cleared the way for Boris to lay psychological truth, Mussorgsky creates for us A cell in the Chudov Monastery in the apparent in populist literature and, above a legitimate claim to the throne of Muscovy, characters who come to life, and have the Kremlin. Six years later all in the music of the ‘Mighty Handful’. for the only other possible claimant, Prince capacity to move and fascinate us. Russia has suffered famine and intrigue during For Mussorgsky and the other nationalist Dmitry, had died in mysterious circumstances Boris’s reign. An old monk, Pimen, is composers Russian history became a kind in May 1591. The principal historical source © 1998 Philip Taylor completing his chronicle of Russian history. of irresistible magnet. Through it they were for Pushkin’s play had been Karamzin’s History His novice, Grigory, is tormented with dreams able to express Russian traditions and values, of the Russian State. In this work, Karamzin Synopsis of greatness. Pimen recalls his eventful past, and above all, the uniqueness of their had chosen to ignore contemporary reports the battles and the tsars he has known, and perception of the world and their place concerning the death of the young prince Scene 1 tells how the Tsarevich Dimitri was murdered, in it. In particular, they were drawn to one Dmitry (the official report stated that he had A courtyard of the Novodyevichy Monastery Grigory discovers that Dimitri would have of the most dramatic and bloody periods in accidentally cut his own throat during an outside Moscow. February 1598 been his own age, had he lived. Russian history – the late sixteenth century, epileptic fit) and makes Boris the instigator Boris is in retreat in the monastery. The covering a period roughly from the reign of his murder. In following this version of apathetic people are exhorted to beg him to Scene 4 of Ivan the Terrible to the so-called Time events Mussorgsky created a charismatic assume the throne, first by the police and then An inn on the Lithuanian border. A few days of Troubles. character both strong and ruthless on one by the Boyar Shchelkalov, who prays that God later No full appreciation of the opera is possible hand, yet human and guilt-ridden on the may bring guidance to the troubled land. A Grigory has fled from the monastery and is without a proper understanding of the events other. procession of pilgrims enters the monastery. making for the border, intending to set himself which led up to the accession of Boris The opera charts the rise to power and the The people comment cynically on up as the Tsarevich Dimitri and lead a rising Godunov in 1598. In order to do this we have death of Boris against a background rich in developments. against Boris. With two vagabond monks, 6 7 CHAN 3007 BOOK.qxd 15/10/07 10:17 am Page 8 Varlaam and Missail, he arrives at a lonely inn Scene 6 witty characterizations of a host of diverse (Siegfried), Titurel and Gurnemanz (Parsifal) close to the frontier.