MET broadcast "Boris Godunov" review by Paul Horsley

Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov has always been an anomaly among operas. In addition to hovering, like much Russian opera, on the periphery of our Italian- and German-dominated repertoire, it has for most of its history been performed in a souped-up re-orchestration by Rimsky-Korsakov that glazes over much of its austere, at times intentionally raw flavor. To add to the confusion, Boris exists in two authorized versions, each with scenes that do not appear in the other, and each with a very different ending. Nevertheless the opera has remained a fan favorite, chiefly because of its haunting and musically brilliant portrayal of this deeply flawed tragic anti-hero. Stephen Wadsworth’s magnificent new production that opened at the Metropolitan Opera this fall takes a shrewd approach to all this: It returns to the composer’s uniquely colored orchestrations, and includes virtually all the music from both versions.

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