Politics
Baroness Andrews reviews the Royal Ballet and Opera’s ‘Boris Godunov’
RBO’s Boris Godunov | Image by: Mihaela Bodlovic
4 min read
With its reflections on truth and power, and its parallels with modern European geopolitics, this RBO production of the Russian opera is both gorgeous and chilling
Power – how to get it and to hold on to it – is the stuff of opera. Richard Jones’ Royal Ballet and Opera (RBO) production of Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (here revived by Ben Mills) exposes, unflinchingly, how power deludes and destroys. It is a triumphant partnership with conductor Mark Wigglesworth and the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, who returns in the title role for a third time since 2016.
Boris Godunov is one of the definitive operas of the 19th century, as innovative musically as it was in its mission – to bring the voice and the vexed history of the Russian people into Western European view. Its influence, particularly on the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, was profound.
Based on Alexander Pushkin’s drama of 1825, Richard Jones uses Mussorgsky’s 1869 version (later revised in 1875) to compress the tragedy into a graphic novel of seven stylised scenes, in the course of which the tsar Boris Godunov is destroyed by external enemies and internal demons.
But it is not quite as simple as that. It’s the 1590s and as the curtain rises we witness the assassination of Dmitry, the youngest son of the late tsar Ivan the Terrible. The child is clutching his spinning top. Boris Godunov, a boyar (an aristocrat), is a reluctant and troubled successor who is “heavy in his heart” even as he is crowned. (Ukrainian baritone Andrii Kymach is superb as the clerk to the boyar’s council, as is British tenor John Daszak as the traitorous Shuisky.)
Dmitry’s suspicious death opens the way to every sort of superstition. Boris is undone by two devious monks, both wonderfully sung. The elder, Pimen (the Polish bass, Adam Palka), is inventing a new history of Russia, which casts Boris as the murderer and invests the dead Dmitry with miraculous powers. Grigory (American tenor, Jamez McCorkle) assumes Dmitry’s identity in a bid to claim the throne.
The gorgeous orchestration and playing fuse brilliantly with the drama unfolding on stage
What sets Mussorgsky and this thrilling production apart is how the composer’s passionate conviction – that music should reveal an interior world – takes actual voice and shape. As Boris descends into paranoia and hallucination the gorgeous orchestration and playing fuse brilliantly with the drama unfolding on stage.
Equally, we hear and see Mussorgsky’s ambition that music should represent ‘life as it is lived’ in the vitality, depth and sweetness of the huge chorus. The orthodox choral tradition, voiced first by a sullen mass in monochrome grey gives way to Russian folksong as, transformed by technicolour robes and amplified by the coronation bells, the chorus of ‘Slava’ nearly takes the roof off.
Bryn Terfel’s bass baritone (in tone from light to dark) lends itself uniquely to the interpretation of Boris – as an empathetic, conflicted figure, consoling and desperately trying to protect his own children – while maintaining its visceral power.
One final image: Dmitry’s spinning top becomes the motif for a world out of control. As Boris sits alone beneath a vast map of Russia the parallels are inescapable: the chimera of power, the historic geopolitics of Europe, frailty of truth and human nature – as evident now, chillingly, as then.
Baroness Andrews is a Labour peer
Boris Godunov
Conducted by: Mark Wigglesworth
Directed by: Richard Jones
Venue: Royal Opera House until 18 February
