On May 9 and May 29 the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will represent the grand opera Khovanshchina by Modest Mussorgsky in concert.
Modest Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina is a distinctive name in Russian operatic music. It is no wonder that critics have dubbed the opera a “chronicle of Russian life”, and the composer himself has named it nothing less than a “national musical drama”. The historical plot and individual music language closely resembling intonations of living speech, a large cast and “speaking” orchestra are the components that have enabled this composition to be of paramount importance.
Musorgsky’s score is excitingly exuberant and realistic. Various large-scale choral scenes, lyrical arias of heroes and heroines, highly emotional dialogues, and colorful orchestral canvases able to depict everything – from the dawn on the Moscow River to the terrible tragic fire – have generated its own musical universe. This is the reason why performing Khovanshchina in concert is not a middle-ground alternative to performing it in scenery but a self-contained format that allows the public to hear all rich voices and understand all subtleties in this great operatic drama.
On May 9 the primary roles in Khovanshchina will be sung by opera soloists of the Primorsky Stage such as Laura Bustamante, Sergei Sevastyanov, Yevgeny Plekhanov, Mingiyan Odzhaev, Alexei Smirnov, Vyacheslav Vasilyev, and Ilya Astafurov. The baton will be held by Pavel Smelkov, Principal Conductor.
