M.Mussorgsky - "Coronation scene" . Mariinsky, Gergiev.

From the opera "Boris Godunov" (1872 Composer original version).
Mariinsky Theater chorus and orchestra- St. Peterburg, Russia.
Conductor: Valeriy Gergiev

Category:

Music

Tags:

• mussorgsky
• gergiev
• coronation
• godunov
• mariinsky
• russia
• opera
• мусоргский
• коронация
• годунов
• гергиев
• мариинский
• опера

[Timrath]

Wow, I expected this to be really bad, but it is much better than the Korsakov or even the Shostakovich version. I wonder why they considered it necessary to tamper with the original.

[RADAMES1983]

@Timrath I wonder as well....

And all the opera is like that...:)

[pvssymaster]

There is one huge glaring costume error in this production: The gentleman wearing the dark blue uniform at the front left is wearing a 19th century uniform that would have been better suited for the Romanov Tzar's than a Tzar during the 1590's. This uniform didn't exist back then.

[RADAMES1983]

:))

Opera (like a thearer) is not a documental cimena...

It's first of all about the music and the drama.

I'm not srtict that you may be, but I love the "historycal" productions as well, much more than 90% of the "modern", which is usually a bulshit...

[LilaMillstone]

All right, is this the original version or not?

[RADAMES1983]

Yes. It is an original Mussirgsky version (1872).

[Timrath]

@pvssymaster It looks like that because it is precisely that. The image does not depict a scene from the opera, but the coronation of Alexander III in 1883.

[TheCantator]

Nicolai Putilin as Boris

[queldryk]

Are the bells a call to dinner on the SS Bremen? (Robert Kraft on hear a performance of Parsifal)

[BorisGodunov]

Widespread rumor of Boris having murdered Dmitri didn't gain much traction until later, after crop failures led to widespread famine and general discontent with his reign. It emerged mostly coincidental to the emergence of the False Dmitri.

Boris having "ghosts and visions" is a dramatic fiction of the opera. There's no reason to think this was a problem for the historical Boris.

He was a capable Tsar, but his policies ultimately were disastrous for Russia and led to his downfall.

[peddletoneG]

I read that he was suspect at the time, though, and although he didn't lose power, who knows for sure? For sure he had a history of being an operatchik during the pograms of The Terrible Ivan, who brained his equally terrible son while enraged. To Boris' credit, he'd tried to make peace, getting a good twhack as thanks. As to whether he was 'gudenov' to be a czar, as a joker said--for his time, sure. But he has ghosts and visions ogging his back trail for a good reason. He put them there.

[BorisGodunov]

Actually, Boris was regent during the reign of Tsar Feodor I and effectively ran the empire from 1584 onwards. Dmitri died in 1591, but he wasn't a "rightful heir" to the throne: as a child of Ivan's seventh wife, the Russian Church viewed him as illegitimate, as only up to the third marriage was recognized.

Boris became Tsar in 1598, upon the death of Feodor. There's no historical evidence that Boris had Dmitri killed, so that is a fiction of the play/opera.

[BorisGodunov]

That's because the painting being shown is of the crowning of a 19th century Tsar. It is not the scene in the opera.

[nickcowie]

I meant, who is singing boris?