![\"Anatoli](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/munichBorisGodunov.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 As dramaturgy, Calixto Bieito<\/a>\u2019s new staging here of Mussorgsky\u2019s seven\u2011scene 1869 Boris Godunov<\/em> (heard and seen yesterday, Feb. 20) runs into trouble almost immediately.<\/p>\n Set in present\u2011day Russia \u2014 identifiable by the up\u2011to\u2011date, thug\u2011police gear and the wall map in Boris\u2019s Terem (Scene V) \u2014 it seems to want to cast Vladimir Putin as the boyar turned czar (actual reign: 1598\u20131605). Indeed, Putin\u2019s face is first, front, and center among placards displayed in Scene I, as the crowd is bullied into endorsement of a leadership change.<\/p>\n But that would entail the Russian president dropping dead on the stage of Munich\u2019s nice theater, an outcome for which not even Bieito \u2014 born in Old Castile, Spain \u2014 would have the cojones<\/em>, to say nothing of Bavarian State Opera<\/a> management\u2019s likely concerns.<\/p>\n So the thing gets diluted. Putin\u2019s face is promptly surrounded by placards for sundry other politicians, to wit: Cameron, Hollande, Monti, and Rajoy, supplemented by the peacefully removed from office Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, and Sarkozy; the current German chancellor and U.S. president apparently do not merit inclusion, though someone resembling Leon Panetta does. And Boris emerges as a fill\u2011in\u2011the\u2011blank oligarch, schemer and poison victim. His death (Scene VII) occurs at an oligarch get\u2011together attended \u2014 in a feeble try at framing the concept \u2014 by present\u2011day, multinational finance ministers. Boyar, you see, equals oligarch, equals business leader; finance ministers are there to cater.<\/p>\n Still, Bieito shoots his interpretive load along the way with slices of supposed present\u2011day Russian life. People are shoved, choked and skull\u2011crushed by the police. Boris\u2019s young daughter Xenia is a drunk. The Innkeeper (Scene IV) ruthlessly whips her own toddler while puffing a cigarette. The robbed Holy Fool<\/a> is repeatedly stabbed by a little girl, and then shot in the head by her at close range under police cover.<\/p>\n Pimen the chronicler undoes<\/em> history by ripping pages from a file. His student Grigory (a.k.a. False Dmitry I<\/a>, czar in 1605\u201306) stabs a policeman, breaks the necks of the Nanny and Xenia, and suffocates Boris\u2019s son Fyodor<\/a> (historically czar in 1605). Boris\u2019s own slow death, in context, doesn’t exactly ache in its poignancy.<\/p>\n For visual sustenance during the unbroken 135\u2011minute proceedings, we survey a cumbersome dark metallic unit shifting around the stage against an equally dark, smoky background. Technical staff here are proud of their mostly quiet hydraulics.<\/p>\n Last night\u2019s performance (transmitted live on Mezzo TV<\/a>) riveted attention through extraordinary singing. Alexander Tsymbalyuk<\/a>\u2019s stentorian bass voice in the title role brought eager expression to all lines of the anguished ruler. Secure from bottom to top, Tsymbalyuk sang with refined legato here, pointed declamation there. Now 36, this Ukrainian artist last year concluded a nine\u2011year affiliation with Staatsoper Hamburg<\/a>; remember the not\u2011so\u2011easy name.<\/p>\n Veteran of the title role, and fellow Ukrainian, Anatoli Kotcherga<\/a> (65) invested Bieito\u2019s un\u2011chronicler with power, eloquence and welcome stature. Another sometime Boris, Vladimir Matorin<\/a> (64) from Moscow, boomed with full\u2011voiced, undaunted lyricism as Varlaam, effective well beyond So It Was In the City of Kazan<\/em>.<\/p>\n St Petersburg tenor Sergei Skorokhodov<\/a> introduced a clarion, unstrained Grigory. Gerhard Siegel<\/a> floated attractive tones in the oily duties of Basil Shuisky (future czar Basil IV<\/a>, 1606\u201310), presenting the character as a credible advisor more than as a scorned stereotype. Company member Okka von der Damerau<\/a> lent her vivid and plush\u00a0mezzo to the hard\u2011put\u2011upon, abusive\u00a0Innkeeper, and 23\u2011year company member Kevin Conners<\/a> of East Rochester, NY, bellyached musically as the Holy Fool.<\/p>\n Advance hopes that Kent Nagano<\/a> might bring some sweep, flair or insight to Mussorgsky\u2019s graphic score \u2014 his last premiere as Bavarian State Opera Generalmusikdirektor<\/em> \u2014 soon receded. His approach was plain, without feel for the Russian phrase. If he grasped the problems of balance caused by Mussorgsky\u2019s intermittent misjudgment of orchestral weight, in this third performance of the run, he made no audible compensation for them. As usual he paced the music fittingly and coordinated well. Wind ensemble fell below par for the Bavarian State Orchestra<\/a>; the chorus sang in unclear Russian, with greater musical discipline than usual. Disenchanted by Bieito\u2019s whopping liberties with the colorful, pageant\u2011endowed story, but enthralled by the singing, the crowd applauded lightly.<\/p>\n Still image from video \u00a9 Bayerische Staatsoper<\/p>\n Related posts:
\nPublished: February 21, 2013<\/span><\/p>\n
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\nVerdi\u2019s Lady Netrebko<\/a>
\nThielemann\u2019s Rosenkavalier<\/a>
\nPetrenko\u2019s Rosenkavalier<\/a><\/p>\n