SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA REVIEW

71st Quincena Musical Donostiarra - Mussorgsky, Boris Godunov: Soloists, Orchestra and Chorus of Helikon Opera Theatre. Conductor: Vladimir Ponkin.Auditorio Kursaal de San Sebastián. 27.8.2010 (JMI)

Production: Helikon Opera Theatre Moscow
Director. Dimitri Bertman.

Sets: Igor Nezhny.

Costumes: Tatiana Tulubieva.

Lighting: Damir Ismagilov.

Cast:
Boris Godunov. Alexander Kiselev.

Shuiski: Vadim Zaplechny.

Marina: Xenia Viaznikova.

Pimen: Dmitry Skorikov.

Grigory/Simpleton: Dmitry Ponomarev.

Varlaam: Dmitry Ovchinnikov.

Rangoni: Andrey Vylegzhanin.

Fiodor: Ilya Ilin.

Xenia: Marina Kalinina.

Schelkalov: Petr Morozov.

Inn-Keeper: Maria Maskhulia.

 

Production Picture Courtesy of Helikon Opera Theatre

The two oldest and most prestigious summer festivals in Spain focussed their operatic interest this year on Boris Godunov, which seems a strange choice, since this opera is something of a rarity here. For Quincena Musical Donostiarra however, the choice does makes sense: the 2010 festival program is dedicated to Russian music and Mussorgsky’s masterpiece is certainly one of the key works in the Russian repertoire. What was more debatable though was the choice of opera company invited to perform it.

Past visits to Santander and Perelada Festivals by Helikon Opera Theatre have been rather good in musical terms, although more than debatable as productions and usually rather weak in terms of the singing. The story was much the same this time.

The version of Boris Godunov chosen was Shostakovich’s from 1940, although in shortened form, without the Kromy Forest scene and with some other cuts; eliminating the role of the Nurse completely and truncating the roles of Varlaam, Missail and Schelkalov into little more than brief episodes in the action.

Dimitri Bertman’s stage production was also one of the worst I've seen of this opera and I had the distinct impression that Bertman somehow intended to present the whole drama as an opera buffa. It seemed to me more than once that the portrayals of Xenia, Fyodor, Shuisky, Boris himself and, above all, the false Dimitri were simply ridiculous. The worst of them all – at least for me was to combine Grigori and the Simpleton into one character, which made the false Dimitri seem just silly and stupid. If I add to this the fact that the relationship between Princess Marina and Jesuit Rangoni was shown as a love affair, then that should be enough to highlight the production’s limitations but the actual staging did not help either. Igor Nezhny’s set consisted principally of a large staircase occupying the stage for the entire opera - which had no more visual impact than something we might expect from a "low cost" production. Three hours of the same staircase is frankly too much for anybody.

The best part of the evening came from the pit, where Vladimir Ponkin offered a good, though not quite outstanding, reading of the score, securing good performances from both Orchestra and Chorus.

The vocal casting showed up several black holes as is usual with this company. Alexander Kiselev was an acceptable Boris Godunov, but with a not particularly powerful voice and an unremarkable performance as an interpreter. Dmitry Skorikov as Pimen and Dmitry Ovchinnikov as Varlaam both left a positive impression however and Andrey Vylegzhanin made a good Rangoni.

The rest of the cast left much to be desired. Xenia Viaznikova was an adequate and acceptable Marina in the middle range of her voice, but less so at the top. Grigory / The Simpleton were played by Dmitry Ponomarev, who has a voice more suited to singing Mime. Marina Kalinina was unacceptable as Xenia and equally weak were Ilya Ilin’s Fyodor and Maria Maskhulia’s Innkeeper. Even Vadim Zaplechny’s Shuisky failed to encourage any great interest.

The Kursaal had about 25 % of its seats empty and the final reception for the performance was polite and even warm, but without special enthusiasm for any of the performers Surprisingly, there was timid applause at the end of the love duet (more an overt sex duet in this production) in the Polish Act. In sum, this Boris was not worthy of the prestige of a performance at Quincena Musical Donostiarra.

José M Irurzun

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