I saw the Mariinsky Theatre. The opera lasts three and a half hours. In his first edition, Mussorgsky wrote down every movement of the performers on stage, up to facial expressions on his face. Many researchers compare it to a movie script. Of the minuses - when the choir sings, you can not always make out the words.
I was surprised that the director was Andrei Tarkovsky. This is the only opera he has directed. He did it in 1983 at London’s Royal Opera Covent Garden. Godunov's party was performed by the British Robert Lloyd. In the 1990 production I watched, it was the same. It was a bit scary to start watching a Russian opera, where the main role was played by a foreigner, but I was not disappointed. You stop paying attention to the accent. Massive, epic action. The final scene is impressive.
The name Boris is fatal for Russian history. These are bright, power-hungry men who are able to create turmoil in the life of the whole country. Godunov was the first king elected by the people. Yeltsin is the first popularly elected head of Russia.
The opera with a canvas, palette of colors reminded V.M. Vasnetsov’s painting “The Baptism of Rus”. Visually very rich and beautiful. And choral singing is like praying in the Orthodox Church. Aesthetically everything is on top.
In an interview with the Times in 1983, Tarkovsky said: I am mainly concerned with Boris’s own inner drama, and I think that if I were to shoot this opera, the film would be intimate. At the center of Boris is the problem not of power, but of a man broken by power.
In 1998, I graduated from the Historical Lyceum at RSUH, wanted to enter the Historical and Archival Institute. I like to read about it after the death of Ivan the Terrible. There is something spontaneous, creepy, rebellious, meaningless about it. And very attractive. It's like looking into the abyss.