Welcome to Mogens operasite!

|Startsida | Singers | Creators | Synopsis | Operahouses | My operaworld | My blog - Operalogg | Searchbox |

Boris Godunov Opera in a prologue and four acts.

Composer and librettist

Music: Modest Musorgskij. Lyrics: Musorgskij after Nikolaj Karamsins "The history of the Russian people"

Libretto

To be able to read the libretto you have to start an account and register at Karadar.Free the first month

Première

First performance at Marinskijteatern in S:t Petersburg on the eight of February 1874.Attended the performance at Göteborgsoperan, in Gothenburg on the tenth of May 2005

Prologue

Outside a monastery the crowd has been persuaded to beseech Boris Godunov to become their Tsar. For tactical reasons, however, he appears undecided. "The voice of the people" must decide. The people are ordered to take part in his coronation and show the proper "enthusiasm".

Act 1

Scene 1

An aged monk, Pimen, is writing his chronicles where "the thruth" shall be shown to future generations. It has been decided that a young novice, Grigory will continue in his footsteps. Grigory is, however, more fascinated by Pimen´s stories of his worldly, warlike past and of Ivan the Terrible´s son whom Boris murdered, a son who, had he lived, would be the same age as Grigory. Grigory,who has lived behind the walls of the monastery, becomes obsessed with the idea and escapes from Pimen and monastic life.

Scene 2

Grigory makes his way to an inn on the border of Lithuania together with two vagabond monks. The proprietess of the inn warns Grigory of the border guard´s harassment but also tells him a way to get by the, so when two guards with an arrest warrant for Grigory appear, she helps him to escape.

Act 2

In Boris´ residence in the Kremlin, his daughter is mourning the death of her betrothed. Her brother and a nurse attempt to console her with happy songs but they are interrupted when Borsi enters. He is enormously proud of his son´s diligence in his studies but, in amonlig, expresses his loathing and despondency over how everuthing seems to go wrong and how people are plotting against him. The suspected leader of the complicity, the Boyar Shuisky, enters and is met with Boris´temperamental outburst. Shuisky skilfully plays on Boris´guilty conscience over the murder of the young successor to the throne and, when he takes his leave, the Tsar collapses in pain and anguish.

Act 3

Scene 1

In Poland a beautiful aristocrat, Marina, is in the company of her "friends". Marian is bored by her existence and dreams of the young Grigory who is posing as Dimitri, the son of Tsar Ivan whom Boris is supposed to have murdered. A Jesuit priest, Rangoni, urges her to pursue this false Dimitri, to goad him in his ambitions of becoming Tsar and to introduce the "true-belief" In Russia.

Scene 2

A party at Marina´s where she is surrounden by Polish noblemen whom she despises. Later she meets Grigory and persuades him to do both her and Rangoni´s bidding.

Act IV

Scene 1

Shuisky has persuaded Pimen to come and tell Boris of the miracles that have taken place at the tomb of the heir to the throne. This proves to be the final blow and Boris expires, victim of a heart attack.

Scene 2

A crowd had taken a Boyar captive. They torture him, humiliate him and finally murder him. Young boys attack a simpleton - The Holy Fool - and the crowd is goaded to increased frenzy when both the vagabond monks tell them of the deplorable state of things in the country. Their desire to revolt is brutally dampened, however, when "Dmitri" appears on his way to Moscow. Once again the people are forced to praise a new Tsar and history repeats itself. Only The Holy Fool expresses the sadness and hopelessness of the situation in his final song.

"Weep,weep,Russian people".

HERE YOU CAN BY CD: AND DVD:s TO REASONABLE PRICES Shop at Amazon