Opera Books
THE OPERA
EDITED BY
ALBERT HILLERY BERGH
VOLUME IV.
1909
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Moussorgsky
Modest Petrovitch
Mussorgsky was born at Toropetz, Russia, on March 28, 1839, and died at
St. Petersburg on March 28, 1881. His mother gave him piano lessons from
an early age. On leaving the Ensigns’ School in St. Petersburg he became
an army officer.
In 1857 he began to associate with Durgomijsky and other members of
the new Russian school, and became so absorbed in the study of music
under the direction of Balakirev that he resigned his military
commission to devote himself exclusively to composition. He composed
The Nursery (seven songs of child life), Dances of Death, and
numerous other songs, in addition to many orchestral works and piano
pieces, but he is best known as an operatic composer.
The revival of Boris Godunoff at Paris in 1908 led to its
first American production at New York in 1910. In this opera the main
interest is centered in the chorus and dialogue, as the aim of the
composer was to present typical scenes of Russian life.
It is owing to his remarkable gift for musical expression of a
dramatic order and to the admirable quality of his orchestral and choral
effects in interpreting the stirring incidents of the story that this
opera has been classed as a masterpiece.
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Mussorgsky’s dramatic talent exceeded his musical technique, and
his score of Boris Godunoff has been submitted to considerable
revision, but he is thoroughly original in his melodies and harmonies.
He uses his motives to emphasize emotional or dramatic moods, and some
of the themes are melodic fragments of Russian folksongs.
Opera in three acts by
Modest Petrovitch Mossorgsky. Libretto adapted from the historical drama
of the same name by Alexander Pusbkin.
Characters: Boris Godunoff; Dimitri; Theodore and Xenia, children
of Boris; the Nurse; Marina; Schonisky; Tchelkaloff; Pimenn; Varlaam;
Missail; the Innkeeper; the Simpleton; Police Officer; two Jesuits.
Place, Moscow, Poland and Forest of Krony. Time, the Sixteenth
Century. First produced at St. Petersburg in 1874. First American
production at New York in 1913.
Boris Godunoff was Regent of Russia during the life of Ivan, the
imbecile son of Ivan the Terrible. Upon the death of the latter the
throne would have passed to Ivan’s youngest brother, Dimitri, but Boris
had him murdered secretly. Remorse, however, oppressed Godunoff and he
sought seclusion for prayer and repentance in the Convent of
Novodievitchi, near Moscow. In the opening scene the populace are
assembled in the courtyard, appealing to Boris to declare himself Czar,
but through Tchelkaloff, Secretary of the Duma, he refuses the honor
urged upon him.
The second scene shows us a cell in the Convent of Miracles; where
Brother Pimeun, an aged monk who is
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recording the annals of the Empire, arouses the imagination of the young
novice, Gregory, as he relates to him the story of Boris’ crime. Strange
thoughts are born in Gregory’s mind when he learns that the murdered
Czarevitch, had be lived to reign, would have been his own age.
In the closing scene of the first. act, Boris, at last yielding to
the popular demand, appears to participate in an imposing religious
ceremonial. He addresses his people before the Cathedrals of the
Assumption and of the Archangels and then, amid great enthusiasm, enters
the former to be crowned.
Two vagabonds, Varlaam and Missail, clad as hermits and followed by
Gregory disguised as a peasant, arrive at the inn on the frontier of
Poland. A price has been set on the head of the escaped monk, who has
announced himself as Dimitri, who, he declares, was never slain.
Presently the Czar’s officers arrive. Gregory looks over the warrant
they present, but in reading it changes the description of the fugitive
so that it would indicate Varlaam. The latter, although quite drunk,
also examines the document and has sufficient intelligence to realize
that the warrant is for Gregory, whom he promptly accuses. The false
Dimitri, however, is too quick for the officers and dashes from the
room.
The next scene shows us the private apartment of the Czar in the
Kremlin. His children, the young Czarevitch, Theodore, and his sister,
Xenia, are there with their nurse. Boris enters and gives way to gloomy
meditation, disclosing the mental suffering to which the memory of his
crime has subjected him. Heis interrupted by the announcement that his
Minister, Prince Schonisky, has arrived to tell him of the uprising of
the
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people in favor of the false Dimitri. Terror seizes the Czar. He insists
upon Schonisky’s assurance that he really saw the dead body of the
murdered Czarevitch. Left alone, his emotion overwhelms him.
Specter-haunted, he sinks upon his chair, crushed and broken, and almost
bereft of reason.
The garden of the castle of Michek, in Poland, is shown in the
opening scene of the third act. Michek’s daughter, the beautiful Marina,
rejects all other suitors in favor of Gregory. Prompted by love and
ambition, she urges him to lead the uprising against Boris and seize the
throne himself.
The scene following presents a gathering of typical Russian
peasants in the Forest of Krony. In the closing scene of the opera a
meeting of the Duma is being held to determine what action should be
taken to crush the false Dimitri. Prince Schonisky interrupts the
proceedings by describing the agony of Boris, which he had witnessed by
eavesdropping. In the course of his narration Boris, himself, enters the
hail and overhears Schonisky’s speech. He denounces him bitterly and
threatens him with death. At this point the monk, Pimeun, is ushered in.
He has had a mysterious dream in which a venerable shepherd told him
how, after having been blind from childhood, he had regained his sight
by obeying the order of a miraculous vision of Dimitri, the slain
Czarevitch, to offer a prayer at his tomb. The monk’s words terrify the
Czar. He calls for his son, Theodore, who rushes into his father’s arms.
Boris feels the end is at hand. Declaring Theodore his rightful heir and
begging the mercy of heaven for his crimes, he sinks into his chair and
dies.
Last updated April 21, 2007