Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov
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Movie Reviews of Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov
Movie Review: BORIS NOT BORING
Summary: 4 Stars
Seeing the names "Valery Gergiev" and "Kirov Opera", my interest was instantly piqued. As both are renowned globally for their superb performances, this is the one I chose (from many others) to present to an opera class that I teach. The class and I were definitely pleased.
From the first note, it was obvious that Gergiev and his orchestra were of one mind. Gergiev conducted with fire, brilliance, tenderness and sadness throughout the Prologue-Acts 1, 2, 3 version. His podium prowess was matched by the singers, especially Robert Lloyd in the title role. He maintained a consistent demeanor of heaviness and guilt thruout, coupled with a rich bass-baritone that was even from top to bottom and completely at his command. The Death Scene stands out as superbly acted and tightly focused around the text amd the future of his son.
As Marina, Olga Borodina was a tour de force: she immediately took command of the stage in Act II and delivered the goods vocally from top to bottom. My one complaint is that she appeared to have a number of "stock positions", from which she repeatedly drew. However, the radiance of her voice and her own personal beauty overshone any short-comings in the acting department.
It was slightly disappointing to see that Boris' son, Feodor, was sung by Larissa Dyatkova, when there are several premier countertenors who make the part so believable. Hers was a young voice, so that helped to create the innocence of youth, but her overall delivery kept reminding me of a superlative Octavian.
The one distressing aspect of this performance was the Opera Chorus, that sounded at times as if each singer was auditioning for a part...rather than working with his/her fellow colleagues. The tone was slightly raucus, uneven, and lacked a sense of cohesion--perhaps the Russian language is not conducive to achieving this?
What a relief it was to see that this production was done with a sense of realistic sets and costumes. It rang true historically instead of being moved to modern times, where one has to figure out the symbolism (if any) in addition to listening and "feeling" what is trying to be communicated--even if you do know the plot.
There are many other DVDs from which to choose, with the two best (in my opinion) is the Kirov [traditiona] and the Gran Teatre del Liceu [contemporary]. Of these two, the Kirov wins by 1] having Gergief at the helm; and, 2] a cast where virtually all the singers are Russian.
Movie Review: Dreadful picture mars a valuable production
Summary: 4 Stars
Although this is a valuable record of a memorable production (the great Russian film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky's only operatic staging), purchasers of the DVD should be warned that the picture quality is absolutely diabolical. It was sourced from a PAL video recording originally made by the BBC, but for some reason (presumably US/Japanese sales) the DVD authors decided to convert it into the NTSC system, which plays havoc with the picture definition. Worse, the low-bitrate transfer has added digital artefacts galore, which get particularly blocky every time the camera pans or zooms.
Thankfully, the sound quality (either PCM stereo or DTS 5.1) is vastly superior, and the set as a whole is clearly a must for Mussorgsky fans and Tarkovsky completists - bad though the picture is, it never completely obliterates the virtues of the original. But it's a real pity that corporate greed has made this such a badly compromised product, as I can't see a separate PAL DVD appearing any time soon.
Movie Review: Boris Godunov DVD Review
Summary: 4 Stars
Before my partner and I went to the Metropolitan Opera's Boris Godunov in the movie theaters, we thought we should watch and hear the opera in advance. We purchased the DVD from Amazon at a very good price and spent several evenings watching it. This performance is from a 1990 production in St. Petersburg and was wonderful. It also allowed us to have a better appreciation of the opera when we saw the Met's productionMovie Review: good music, poor staging
Summary: 3 Stars
This version of Boris is musically convincing, well sung and played. However the staging includes some very odd and irrelevant things, including a Christian ending which has nothing whatever to do with the actual text of the opera.