Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov
by Andrei Tarkovsky, Valery Gergiev
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alexei Steblianko, Olga Borodina, Robert Lloyd, Sergei LeiferkusDirector: Andrei Tarkovsky, Valery Gergiev
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Russian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Russian (Original Language); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); German (Original Language); Mandarin Chinese (Original Language); Italian (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 210 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-05-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Philips
Movie Reviews of Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov
Movie Review: THRONES DOMINATIONS AND POWERS
Summary: 5 Stars
This production was filmed in St Petersburg, but Tarkovsky's staging was originally put on at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, which is where I saw Boris Godunov for the one and only time nearly 40 years ago. That performance, I recall, used Mussorgsky's own orchestration rather than Rimsky's revised scoring (which is certainly more professional but loses something in the process), and so does this one. What gets lost in Rimsky's beautified and tidied-up version, I find, is the sheer sense of bigness, the feeling of the vastness of Russia and the weight of its history, that comes over from Mussorgsky's majestic crudity. With all respect to my beloved Rimsky this, and not his, is the version I wanted to hear then and I want to go on living with now.
What a mighty masterpiece this opera is! I suppose the most obvious comparison is with Don Carlo, and I don't feel that Mussorgsky loses through making it. His libretto, whatever vicissitudes it underwent in the writing, is distinctly better for one thing. It is clearer and simpler, and even if the ending is not awfully convincing the final denouement of Don Carlo is so plumb eccentric that the vote goes to Boris Godunov even there. For those like myself without knowledge of Russian I am pleased to be able to say `Don't worry that a full libretto with translation is not provided.' Between reading the synopsis and watching the screen (and the picture quality was fine for me although apparently not for everyone) you will easily be able to follow the plot, which is slow-moving and uncomplicated. It is mainly tableau opera, and although real dramatic tension is there in plentiful helpings, more of it is dialogue-drama than action.
The production and direction seem magnificent to me. It comes over as the great sombre masterpiece that I like it to be, and I have no quibbles of any significance. The ending is, I suppose, questionable. The false Dmitri returns to Moscow something like Fortinbras at the end of Hamlet, and it may be going slightly over the top to finish with the stage littered with corpses and a bloodstained axe in the foreground in case you had missed the nonexistent subtleties and innuendoes. Other than that, I thought I spotted one or two of the statues fidgeting slightly, but that could have been camera-wobble, or indeed just my imagination. What I was not imagining was the way the monk-scribe Pimen was directed right at the start of the first act, following the prologue. The orchestral effect obviously suggests the movement of the scribe's pen, so it would have been ordinary common sense to show him writing for at least part of the scene.
The named members of the cast all appear to be Russian with the solitary exception of Robert Lloyd as Boris himself. I would surmise that they all, Lloyd included, know and understand this great work with the marrow of their bones, and so does the conductor, looking decidedly youthful, not to mention the Kirov opera orchestra and chorus. The chorus often fail to be mentioned in reviews, so let me say how well they perform here. Mussorgsky's choral writing, whatever you think of his orchestration, is excellent, far better than Wagner's in The Mastersingers in my own opinion, and it is really a much less common skill. As for the solo singers, they are beyond praise. Their singing is superb musically, but magnificent also as vocal acting. They have the real gravitas and portentousness that this score calls for, portraying personae who are not just commonplace everyday individuals but the very embodiment of aspects of history. The composer gives every assistance in differentiating the various male roles, another factor in common with The Mastersingers, and it is thrilling to hear how, say, even the main religious participants - Pimen himself and the Jesuit Rangoni - come over as such distinct personalities. It is true that their activities are not marked by any great preoccupation with theology, but it is not just the freedom from that drag on their individuality that makes them so superbly dramatic. The casting deserves credit altogether. In particular the actions of Shuisky are scroobious and wily as they should be, and Olga Borodina looks and acts the part to perfection as the haughty and imperious princess Marina who demands the throne of Russia as the price of her love, if that is what we should call it. How different from the conduct of Kate Middleton, I could only reflect.
Name me a weak spot in it all. Even the liner note is not bad, with no libretto as I was saying, but with a learned and interesting little essay by John Warrack, and even a short piece on Tarkovsky by his assistant Irina Brown. The sound quality was excellent too, even on my B-speakers that I have to use for DVD's. In other words, I loved the whole experience, and this interpretation, with its majestic staging and its great-big-Volga-boatman bass voices, is how I like it done best. To the composer it was obviously a deep meditation on the fate of Russia and her peoples, but in the `west' (whatever that is) I hope that, on some days at least, we can treat it as a gorgeous great wallow.
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