The Faber Pocket Guide to Opera (72 page)

From its extraordinary opening scene, in which the police brusquely taunt and goad the wretched, terrified people of Moscow, there is an overwhelming directness about the way this music communicates.
There may be few extensive or hummable melodies in
Boris
Godunov
(and most of those, such as the ‘Slava’ anthem in the Coronation scene or the little song sung by the Hostess of the border inn, are adapted or invented folk-tunes), but every note is dramatically expressive and vividly characterful, and for all their harmonic crudity and instrumental rawness, Mussorgsky’s scores are rich in marks specifying precisely how the words should be inflected and coloured (Boris’s monologues provide the most obvious example of this).
A more conventionally operatic episode is the ‘Polish’ act, with
its graceful Polonaise, luscious love duet and elegant choruses: the figure of the scheming Jesuit Rangoni is a masterpiece of characterization.
Most exciting of all, however, is the scene in the Kromy forest, as the chorus turns into a frenzied vengeful mob, lynching the chanting Jesuit priests and hailing Grigori–Dmitri’s arrival, before the stage is left to the Holy Fool, lamenting the sufferings of the Russian people.

In performance

Modern productions like to emphasize the opera’s relevance not just to the course of Russian history and the tyrannies which have dogged it, but also to the universal problem of authoritarian regimes which oppress peoples and lead to armed dissent and revolution: Herbert Wernicke’s Salzburg production, for instance, presents Boris and the boyars as black-suited Mafia thugs, and many others have updated their setting to the Stalinist era.
But Mussorgsky does not take sides in a facile way, and it is important that Boris’ nobility is felt: in his remorse, he has a greater soul than those scheming self-interestedly around him.

Recordings

CD: Anatoly Kotscherga (Boris); Claudio Abbado (cond.).
Sony S3K 58977

Video: Robert Lloyd (Boris); Valery Gergiev (cond.).
Kirov production.
Decca 071 139 3

Khovanshchina
(
The Khovansky Affair
)

Five acts. First performed St Petersburg, 1886.

Libretto by the composer

Like
Boris
Godunov,
this is an epic of Russian history, based on actual events and historical sources.
Mussorsgky died, riddled
with alcoholism, before he had completed the score or marked up the orchestration.
A performing edition was prepared by Rimsky-Korsakov for the opera’s first posthumous production.
It involved much recomposition, and has now been universally replaced by Shostakovich’s more ‘faithful’ realization of the composer’s intentions and style.
In detail, the plot may be hard to follow, but in a strong performance its impact is immense.

Plot

The action takes place during the early years of the reign of Peter the Great, who supported religious reform and the Orthodox church.
In the name of the Old Believers, Prince Ivan Khovansky and his son Andrei, supported by the troop of élite musketeers known as the Streltsy, are plotting against Tsar Peter’s enlightenment.
The boyar Shaklovity alerts the tsar to the conspiracy by means of an anonymous letter.
Andrei pursues a German girl, to the dismay of his former lover, Marfa.
Dosifei, the pious leader of the Old Believers, calls for prayer.

Prince Vassily Golitsin, an ally of the Khovanskys, summons Marfa to foretell the future.
She predicts only disaster, and he throws her out, ordering a henchman to drown her.
Ivan Khovansky quarrels with Golitsin, until Dosifei appears and urges them to reconcile.
Marfa returns, having been saved from drowning by Tsar Peter’s bodyguard.
The conspirators realize that Peter has learned of their scheming against him, and soon the Tsar’s troops have routed the Streltsy.

Ivan Khovansky withdraws to his estate, where he is entertained by Persian dancers.
He is murdered by the two-timing boyar Shaklovity; Golitsin, meanwhile, is exiled.
Dosifei and Marfa realize that their cause is lost.
Andrei continues to pursue Emma, but Marfa tells him that she has been sent away and that his father has been murdered.
Peter pardons the Streltsy on the verge of their mass execution, but the old Believers will not make their peace with him.
In a forest, led by Dosifei, Andrei and Marfa, they set fire to themselves.

What to listen for

Khovanshchina
is as difficult to grasp musically as it is dramatically, not least because Mussorgsky was struggling through his drunkenness and depression to compose something hugely original – in the words of the scholar Gerard McBurney, the opera is ‘constructed from small (melodic) bits which are constantly reshuffled and reordered to create the illusion of a grand unfolding line’.
Khovanshchina
lacks the Shakespearean variety of atmosphere and character which animates
Boris
Godunov:
although the melodic style is lusher and less jaggedly violent, the overall tone is harsher – this is an opera without heroes or even much in the way of good behaviour.
Two beautiful orchestral passages, the opening ‘Dawn over the Moscow River’ and the ‘Dance of the Persian Slaves’ in Act IV are often played as concert items.

In performance

Even more than
Boris
Godunov,
Khovanshchina
exists in grey moral and political areas.
Whose side are we meant to be on?
The Old Believers Marfa and Dosifei represent stern and fatalistic beliefs and values, the Khovanskys back-stabbing political treachery.
A third element is the westernizing reformer Peter the Great, a character who (because of contemporary censorship restrictions) never appears on stage.
Are we meant to think that the Old Believers achieve a sort of apocalyptic transcendence when they immolate themselves?
Or are we witnessing the death of an old order and the birth of a new, as we do at the end of
Götterdämmerung
? Perhaps it is best to think of the opera not as a fully shaped drama so much as chapters from an old historical chronicle, from which one can draw one’s own conclusions.
For a director, it is much easier to stage each scene convincingly than to make the overall narrative clear.

Recording

CD: Marjana Lipovšek (Marfa); Claudio Abbado (cond.).
DG 429 758 2

Bedřich Smetana

(1824–84)

The
Bartered
Bride
(
Prodaná
nevěsta
)

Three acts. First performed Prague, 1866.

Libretto by Karel Sabina

An opera originally performed in two acts with spoken dialogue, but today almost always performed in a revised three-act version with sung recitative.
Very much a ‘national’ opera which embodies a certain view of Czech culture.
Smetana rather despised the piece, which he regarded as no more than a
jeu
d’esprit
, and longed for his more serious historical dramas to share its popularity.

Plot

In a Bohemian village, Mařenka is in love with Jeník, but her parents and the wily marriage broker Kecal want her to marry the son of the wealthy Tobias Micha.
The latter is thought to have two sons, but Kecal claims that the elder vanished long ago and is presumed dead.
The younger one, Vašek, turns out to be a stuttering fool, and Mařenka makes every effort to put him off.
Kecal offers Jeník money to withdraw, but he agrees to do this only in favour of Micha’s elder son – who, unknown to anyone, is in fact none other than Jeník: himself.
The villagers are shocked to hear that Jeník has renounced love for money.