AP News, May 28th, 2007
A piece of advice to those planning to see the Vienna State Opera's new production of "Boris Godunov": Get ready for a depressing night.
And that's not because the performance is bad. On the contrary, Monday's premiere was outstanding in staging and musicality.
Still, there are few laughs in this Modest Mussorgsky masterpiece. After all, the opera is about Mother Russia's sufferings _ complete with infanticide, madness and suffering serfs that lurch from one inept ruler to the next.
Nearly four hours of misery.
And if there is a smile left in the audience at the end of it all, it's guaranteed to wither with the last lines of the Village Fool left on a darkened stage and lamenting: "Woe unto Russia, weep, weep O Russian people. Hungry people."
Mussorgsky was obsessed by the theme of Russia's suffering masses, describing them as "big, unpainted and without any tinsel."
Fittingly, one of the heroes in "Boris Godunov" are the people, represented by a huge choir. Or in the case of Monday's performance, the two choirs: the in-house ensemble and the opera choir of Bratislava, the Slovak capital just down the Danube River. Big in numbers, the twin choirs were also lushly full in voice _ mysterious, mournful, menacing, magnificent.
And the "unsung" heroes on Monday? The Vienna State Opera orchestra, under the baton of Daniele Gatti.
Mussorgsky's score swings from dirge to folk music, from Russian ethno to Polish mazurka. Brasses, bells and strings vie for dominance. Throughout it all, Gatti and his ensemble shone, with the maestro blending the voices on stage and instruments in the pit into a sinuously coherent whole. And he tinkered _ to good end _ with the piece, delivering a version that is very close to Mussorgsky's 1872 revision but somewhat tighter.
On stage, Ferruccio Furlanetto was magnificent as the mad czar, Boris. His bass was full and broad, and his death as mercifully short as the opera allows. Fiery and statuesque, Nadia Krasteva's stage presence and bold mezzo put life into her role as Marina Mnishek, the haughty Polish noblewoman craving to rule in the Kremlin.
With all those dark basses in this dark opera, Marian Talaba's sturdy tenor lightens things up, at least vocally. Visually, his stature and demeanor was Napoleonesque _ fitting for the pretender to the czar's throne who usurps Boris by making all of Russia believe that he is the rightful heir murdered at the behest of his predecessor.
Yannis Kokkos kept the staging and lighting simple _ mostly somber tones of red and black _ and the costumes unobtrusive, allowing the music to shine.
And giving the audience an evening in splendidly enjoyable misery.
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On the Net:
Vienna State Opera: http://www.staatsoper.at
