Opera in 4 acts and a prologue
Text by the composer after Alexander Pushkin & Nikolai Karamsin
2nd edition, first performed February 8 1874, Mariinski Theatre, St. Petersburg
Orchestrated by Shostakovich (1939/40)
Introductory talks (in German) in the Holzfoyer 30 mins before curtain up, on video here shortly after opening night, and everywhere where podcasts can be found.
Sung in Russian, with German & English surtitles
A ruler wracked with guilt, power-greedy conspirators, a fickle people and a monk, who writes history, in the true sense of the word: Boris Godunov is crowned Tsar, to the delight of the people, after Dimitri, legitimate heir to the throne, was murdered. The monk Pimen naming the ruler as the murderer in his chronicles of Russian history inspires the novice Grigori to pass himself off as Dimitri, who escaped with his life after all, and lay claim to the throne, backed by ambitious Marina, Polish Voyevoda's daughter. While Boris struggles with ghosts of the past, the Boyars wonder how to get rid of the new usurper, but the »fake Dimitri« ends up being crowned Tsar.
In 1825 Alexander Pushkin wrote a play, a la Shakespeare, about political unrest in early 17th century Russia. The composer shortened it, giving the loosely linked crowd and intimate scenes a national flavour with Russian folk and church music, including bells.
After the Imperial Opera in St. Petersburg’s committee rejected Mussorgsky's work he feverishly set about modifying it, changing the sequence of events and adding the roles of Marina and Rangoni in the "Polish act". But in 1882 censorship officials prevented this version, first seen in 1874, becoming established too. After Mussorgsky's death Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich made their own orchestrations, the last of which provides the base for this new production in Frankfurt.
