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In November 1949 at Covent Garden, I saw Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov for the first time, with the sublimely beautiful voice of Christoff as Boris, a Bulgarian giant among the pygmy Welshmen who were the hacks of the regular company. In the last scene, a vast crowd milled about the stage, the only scenery a sky of the clear blue that is peculiar to sunlit snow, and the entry on a white horse of Grigory, a victorious pretender to the Russian throne, was thrilling.
I saw it again in 1950, Ludwig Weber less wonderful among the Lilliputian Welsh, and again with Christoff in 1953, but then in Paris. At a whim, a week ago, after more than half a century, I saw it yet again at the Coliseum and was taken by surprise.
There was no Grigory on a white steed, there was no Polish Princess to seduce him and become his Queen, and the throne did not pass to him but to Fyodor, the adolescent wimpish son of Boris. Moreover, the performance was finished in a brisk two hours and some minutes, a thing of seven scenes in a straight run set in the undercroft of the Hayward Gallery, rather than the usual eight of cathedral grandeur divided between the prologue and three acts.
But as there are at least seven published versions of the opera, only two by Mussorgsky himself, what is the norm? Truth to tell, the opera is a mess that took five years to develop into performable form and was then twice re-jigged by Rimsky-Korsakov after Mussorgsky's death. It may thus reasonably be presented in any permutation of parts from these four versions.
Stripped of all accretions, we had at the Coliseum the original Boris that "modern tastes invariably prefer". Do they? This is the "totally pure version", the first of 1869 but not performed until 1900. Well, nothing of this is apparent in the guide to the winter schedule, nor in the programme until the last of 25 pages of essays, photographs and exegeses - yet in this version we lose the Polish Princess, the only decent role for a woman, her passionate aria and Grigory's passionate response. Gone is the one lyrical episode of mezzo and tenor, and Grigory becomes a minor character. Gone is much exciting work from the orchestra. Gone are two scenes and a whole act.
By such short measure, I felt deprived, even defrauded. There should have been some clear signal that old hands might not get what they expect; that we were getting, instead of a long opera, a short one with no love interest, no Catholic Polish Princess, no sinister Jesuits and a very different conclusion.
Opera without significant women does not work. We should have been told that the role of Boris would be performed with as much ham and as little grace as Donald Wolfit in The Bells playing another haunted villain in Victorian style.
Above all, we should have been warned there were to be no intervals; that full bladders would keep us squirming for more than two hours, every extra minute of applause adding to the misery of everyone longing desperately for the loo.
Reader views (3)
Dear Mr. Sewell, Personally, I loathe Wagner! I can't help it and all efforts of husband and Auntie to get me to like it have been in vain!
My idea of hell ( apart from a mobile phone!) is to be stuck in an opera by Wagner, unable to go to the loo, have a cup of tea, move about, be sick,or pee! It's the same as the interminable car journeys we were subjected to when we were young. We were bullied into sitting still and not "fooling about" as we were too major a distraction for our parents (fair enough!)! So, even to this day, I have to sit sideways or facing front in trains ( my favourite form of transport because I can read without feeling ill...until they closed all the windows and relied on the air con. I have even threatened the guard on the dear old Southern region to demonstrate my prowess, to no avail!)- Our trams have windows that open, thank god!
Why the mobile phone, ask you. Because it is usually used to bully people into doing something they don't want to do! Amazing how your hearing sharpens up when you are terminally bored! And we don't have "ladies only" or the luxury of quiet carriages,either.
For your own amusement: look at how people stand (or sit) on our local train services...do they use the (implied) first class seats or not?
Hooray to the Russian Oligarch! He's bought the paper unafraid to tell the truth! I note the others are following on!
- Carlyle Braden, Croydon, UK, 25/01/2009 06:49
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Sorry Brian, but you really must do your homework when you stray into opera criticism. The version you mention several times is the "cleaned" up orchestration of Rimsky Korsakov. The jarring you miss is actually more actute in this version, did you not hear that in the coronation scene? What have you got against Welsh singers? True, maybe they were no Nestorenko's,so that makes them hacks? The extra act of the princess in Poland is shoehorned in and does really very little to extend Grigory's character. I thought the production worked well, the way it moved from scent to scene quite flawlessley and the orchestra (AND chorus) produced some great sounds.I also didnt need sinister Jesuits to understand the opera for me as power games as the plotters and opportunists decide which way the wind is blowing with a "Lame duck" Tsar.
- Paul, Putney, 12/12/2008 11:09
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I think that I must have seen a different production of Boris Godunov at the Coliseum from Mr Sewell.
The one that I saw was widely advertised as the original Mussorgsky version, performed in seven scenes - surely enough to tell 'old hands' as well as 'newbies' like myself exactly what they were getting.
I had not seen this opera before, but it all made perfect sense to me, and I'm not clear how a diversion on the character of Grigory when this version is pretty much all about Boris would have added.
As to the state of your correspondents' bladder, it came as no surprise to me that there was no interval - it did seem to be fairly well advertised throughout the theatre - and there didn't seem to be a particular rush for the facilities at the end.
Of course, it may be that we all went beforehand, and I can only share with Mr Sewell an elderly friend's sage advice on this issue - "At my age it's never wise to let an opportunity pass" !
- Peter Swabey, Worthing, West Sussex, 29/11/2008 13:28
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