SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mussorgsky, Boris Godunov: Soloists, chorus and orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, Valery Gergiev, conductor. Metropolitan Opera House, New York, 15.10.2010 (HS)

Cast:

Boris Godunov: Ren� Pape
Marina: Ekaterina Semenchuk
Dimitri: Aleksandrs Antonenko
Shuisky: Oleg Balashov
Rangoni: Evgeny Nikitin
Pimen: Mikhail Petrenko
Varlaam: Vladimir Ognovenko

Production:

Director: Stephen Wadsworth
Set Designer: Ferdinand W�gerbauer
Costume Designer: Moidele Bickel
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Choreographer: Apostolia Tsolaki

German Bass Ren� Pape, one of the few non-Slavic voices in the cast of the Metropolitan Opera�s new production of Boris Godunov, brings a different sound and demeanor to the title role than what we are accustomed to hearing. He strips away most of the histrionics, with only the occasional hoarse gasp to emphasize the character�s terror. From his first appearance he has a haunted look, his long hair becoming increasingly frazzled as his scenes unfold. For the most part, he simply lets that gorgeous, burnished sound wrap itself around Mussorgsky�s music. He may be the most mellifluous Boris since George London.

He could be accused of underplaying the role, especially given the spare sets and decidedly un-imperial costumes for the title character. Other than the boyars� costumes, there is very little in the physical production to place this production in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. A few wall-like flats could represent almost anything, and for some reason the women�s chorus as Princess Marina�s retinue in Act III is done up in white lace like a group plucked from the Belle Epoque.

The departure of German director Peter Stein, who reportedly was offended by his treatment by U.S. Immigration, five weeks before the new production�s premier left it to Stephen Wadsworth to step in and pick up the pieces. He didn�t have much to go on. The only new scenic bit of importance Stein left behind was an oversized book the size of a queen-size bed. Visible downstage in every scene, it reminds us that Russian history was still being written in this time frame. It is first seen when the monk Pimen composes the story of Boris� ascension to the throne amid accusations that the monarch had the young tsarevich killed to pave the way. To make some sense of the rest of the production, Wadsworth, a Met mainstay, seems to have elected to play it straight, only amping up the violence in the several crowd scenes and adding a brief suggestion of sexual tension between Marina and the Svengali-like Rangoni.

That pretty much left it to the cast and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev to provide any fireworks. In the second performance, heard Friday, those were considerable. The wealth of voices went from strength to strength, and Gergiev�s touch with the score and the orchestra�s rendering of the music found a clarity and transparency that a few decades ago would have ben thought impossible with Mussorgsky�s original orchestration. Other composers, notably Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich, took shots at improving it, and theirs were more often performed until recent years because Mussorgsky�s was considered too coarse and rough. But in Gergiev�s fluttering hands the results were mesmerizing.

It added up to a long, powerful evening, even if Pape�s choice to underplay the role may have undercut that final extra edge of magnificence. There was also the curious decision to interpolate the earlier, shorter, 1869 version of Boris� Act II monologue and clock scene into the otherwise more fully realized 1875 version of the rest of the opera. The version performed of that monologue and scene sorely misses new music introduced in the later version, which also moves more smoothly and feels more complete than the one performed. Gergiev also chose to resurrect the short St. Basil�s scene in Act IV, which gave the chorus more prominence.

Standouts in the strong cast included Belarus mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk�s round-voiced, dead-sexy (and vaguely S&M) Marina and baritone Evgeny Nikitin�s semi-crazed and powerful-sounding Rangoni. Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko, as the novice Grigory who becomes the false Dmitri, pretender to Boris� throne, displayed the pipes to sing Otello (which he has done at Salzburg), and the stage presence to make a believable tsar-in-waiting. Russian bass Mikhail Petrenko, as Pimen, who puts Grigory up to the task of impersonating Dmitri, wielded a sonorous bass and commanded the stage with a sense of seething anger.

All of the smaller roles were well handled, down to Boris� children (boy soprano Andrew Makepeace as Fyodor, soprano Jennifer Zetlan as Xenia), and the brutal police bullying the crowd into submission. Viktor Ognovenko did a fine turn as Varlaam, the dimwitted innkeeper, and Russian tenor Andrey Popov portrayed the Holy Fool like a deranged street person and sang the music with a haunting high tenor. This production ended with Fool, alone in the Kromy Forest after the mob follows the now-triumphant Dmitry (who arrives on a white steed), bewailing the fate of his beloved Russia.

The chorus, generally considered the other major character in this opera, delivered all their music with power and portrayed specific theatrical moments with dramatic intensity. Their work in the prologue, when they first grumble about being forced to stand vigil while Boris dithers over whether to accept the job as tsar, then erupt in a magnificent hymn when he does appear, set the tone for the entire evening.

This Boris could stand as a reference point for realization of Mussorgsky�s music, even if it leaves the blood a few degrees short of a full boil.

Harvey Steiman