Boris Godunov - 15 November 2008

ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA - cast included Peter Rose, Brindley Sherratt, John-Graham Hall, Gregory Turay and Jonathan Veira

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Another long and bleak evening at the opera - this time involving misery, madness and the death of a child-murderer. Do Russians actually “do” cheerful? :-)

It’s actually the second time I’ve seen Boris Godunov, as I saw the Bolshoi Opera perform it in London about two years ago in a creaky old production that was hugely effective, despite the faded costumes and painted backdrops. The version I saw the Bolshoi perform was the Rimsky-Korsakov adaptation, complete with Marina and the Polish Act, whereas the ENO chose to perform Mussorgsky’s original version in 7 scenes.

Some bright spark decided that there would be no interval which left us sitting through a bum-numbing 2 hours 10 minutes of non-stop gloom. There are many parts of the score that I love but it was hard to concentrate for so long, especially during some of the weaker and boring moments such as the innkeeper and her stupid song about the duck. But I’m sure when I saw the Bolshoi do this there were a couple of extra songs about fleas and squirrels, so I suppose one should be grateful for small mercies!

The production was set in a huge wonky box with rustic wooden walls, a sliding panel at the back and a large ramp incorporated into the right-hand wall which was sometimes lowered with a chair on it. Another review said the set resembled an enormous rabbit hutch but I felt it was more like a barn – which was fine for the scenes involving miserable oppressed peasants and drunken monks but not so suitable to depict the grandness of a palace interior or a magnificent cathedral. I guess it was supposed to be set in the late 19th century, judging by the costumes.

For me the real stars of the show were the orchestra (conducted by Edward Gardner) and the chorus, both of whom did a tremendous job. It was without a doubt the finest and most powerful choral singing I’ve ever heard at the ENO and the orchestra put so much passion into it. The opening scene and the Coronation were absolutely thrilling – I know you’re supposed to hear lots of loud bells at this point but I’m sure I heard somebody bashing a metal baking tray repeatedly with a metal spoon too.

Amongst the principals then my favourites were Brindley Sherratt as a powerfully-sung Pimen and the elegant tenor Gregory Turay as the Pretender Dmitri. Jonathan Veira (a John Tomlinson clone in the looks department) was quite funny as the drunken monk Vaarlam and provided a welcome break from all the misery. John Graham-Hall was suitably slimy and sycophantic as Shiusky.

Unfortunately I didn’t feel that Peter Rose had the vocal heft required for Boris and the tormented anguish of the conscience-stricken Tsar didn’t come across as well as it should have done. It’s true that his voice itself is beautiful but this didn’t seem the right part for him. With his height and rotund physique then he should have been an imposing stage presence but he just didn’t seem evil enough to have conspired in the murder of a seven year old child. The Times compared him to a nice English bank manager and I’d have to agree with them. His acting got much better by the end but sadly, this production deprived him of a proper death scene; in fact he just wandered off stage with the Simpleton and it wasn’t even clear that he had died at all.

I did enjoy it but really wished there was an interval to give us a break from the claustrophobic nature of this production.

Photo: Clive Barda