«Tre years ago we thought of getting away from the “Italian” habits and of open the 2022/2023 season with Boris Godunov by Modest P. Musorgsky. Why cancel it today? Should we hide if we read Dostoyevsky? We don’t propaganda Putin, there is nothing against Ukraine. Just leaf through the libretto: it does not represent the apology of a political regime, if anything the opposite»: thus the superintendent of the Teatro alla Scala, Dominique Meyer, opened the press conference to present the opera which will debut on December 7 at 6 pm, the classical Prima di Sant’Ambrogio.
The cast
A scene from “Boris Godunov” at the Teatro alla Scala (photo Brescia and Amisano).
Riccardo Chailly will be on the podium of “Boris Godunov”, which had its first Italian performance at La Scala – at the behest of Toscanini – in 1909, which was then chosen for the inauguration by Claudio Abbado in 1979 and which reaches 25 productions with this quota. The Maestro preferred the first version of the work (“Ur-Boris”), presented by Musorgsky at the Imperial Theaters of St. Petersburg in 1869, and then reworked on input from the client. The composer (here also librettist) had been inspired by the homonymous tragedy by Aleksandr Pushkin and by the History of the Russian state by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin.
Among the main interpreters, the Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov as the protagonist; Ain Anger is Pimen, Stanislav Trofimov is Varlaam, Dmitry Golovnin is Grigory Otrepev, Norbert Ernst is Shuysky and Lilly Jørstad is Fyodor. The Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala is directed by the Maestro Alberto Malazzi. The sets were designed by Es Devlin,the costumes are creations of Ida Marie Ellekilde and videos of Luke Halls. The lights are of Jonas Bǿgh.
Directing
An intimate moment of the “Boris Godunov” at La Scala (photo Brescia and Amisano).
The direction of the Danish is also very promising Kasper Holten (for years director of Covent Garden), who explains his story like this interpretation: «This work, which came out of the canons of the time, speaks of cynicism, questions power and unmasks its brutality. We have introduced a variant, inserting an interval that separates the two parts, two periods distant in time. The second takes place essentially within the mind of Boris. Pushkin in 1825 wanted to write a drama in the style of Shakespeare and this was my key to tackling it. Boris Godunov reminds me of Richard III or Macbeth. In this production we stage both the ghosts of the past – the ghosts of the victims of the man of power – and the “ghosts of the future”: Boris’s children have a destiny of death». Blood calls for blood, a history lesson that is always (unfortunately) very topical.
But in addition to the theme of guilt and its terrible consequences, there is another one that is particularly close to the director’s heart: the theme of the manipulation of people by those who dominate. «This makes the role of the chorus so important with the mass scenes in which we see the power that pushes the people to convince themselves» he argues: «People who will one day rebel. The search for truth is represented by the character of Pimen, who somehow represents journalists fighting for freedom of speech.
The plot
Director Kasper Holten (photo Sim Canetty-Clarke).
Here is the story – which echoes the Macbeth by Verdi with which La Scala inaugurated the 2021/2020 season – in a nutshell: in 1598, with the death of Tsar Fyodor, guards and priests exhorted the people to pray that the boyar Boris Godunov would agree to ascend the throne. The coronation is held with a sumptuous ceremony, amid some disorder. Meanwhile, in the Chudov monastery, the elderly monk Pimen is about to finish his chronicle of the events in Russia, with the truth about the assassination of Tsarevich Dimitri, legitimate heir to the throne, commissioned by Boris. Learning of the crime, the novice Grigorij decides to pass himself off as the assassinated Tsarevich and lead a revolt against Boris, forced however to fall back to Poland.
With the last scenes we find ourselves in 1604: the children of Boris, Xenia and Fëdor have grown up, and the country is now exhausted by famine. THEThe people begin to raise their heads and, at the borders, the rebel forces led by Grigory are pressing. Haunted by the Tsarevich’s ghost, Godunov goes mad. And he dies.
Ildar Abdrazakov, alias Bors Godunov (photo Brescia and Amisano).
The “Boris Godunov” from La Scala on TV
But the vision of a Boris Godunov so promising it is not reserved only for the “happy few” who will be in the theater: the opera will be live on Rai1 starting at 5.45 pm and on Radio3, on Rai1 HD channel 501 and on RaiPlay, where it will remain for 15 days after the Premiere… . There are many options and there is no excuse not to applaud him: as Holten said, «the world today needs more art».
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