Boris Godunov

Libretto by Modest Mussorgsky after Pushkin

2S,2M,A,4T,Bar,7B; chorus;
3(III=picc).3(III=corA).2.Ebcl.bcl.3(III=dbn)-4.3.3.1-timp.perc:tgl/tamb/SD/BD/cyms/tam-t/t.bells/glsp/xyl-2-4hp-pft-cel-strings-banda on stage:2-4crt/3-6hn/4tpt/6hn/4barsaxhn/2-4tubas-balalaikas.domras(opt)

A reorchestration of Musorgsky’s opera of 1868-72 for stage performance.  In four acts with a prologue.

Just before World War ll Shostakovich set about reorchestrating one of his favourite works in Russian music, Musorgsky’s mighty opera ‘Boris Godunov’. He was prompted to do this by dissatisfaction both with Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous version (which he considered unfaithful to Musorgsky) and with Musorgsky’s original scoring (which he considered too weak orchestrally).

The result is a third, quite different vision of this piece, starker and bleaker than Rimsky, tougher and more sonorous than Musorgsky. It is a vision which deserves to be heard as a powerful work of operatic imagination in its own right.

Note by Gerard McBurney

Dramatic