Coronation scene from Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov is, with Eugene Onegin, one of the two greatest of the many operas inspired by Pushkin. It is true that the second version, the first to be performed – at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, in 1874 – makes several radical dapartures from Pushkin’s Boris Godunov. But it is also true that the initial stimulus for the opera came from Pushkin’s play and that Mussorgsky fashioned the original version of the libretto directly from it. While each version has its adherents, as far as the present excerpt is concerned there is no point in arguing their relative merits: the Coronation Scene is much the same in the revision of 1872 as in the version Mussorgsky had completed in 1869 and so unsuccessfully presented for official approval in 1871.

Even after Mussorgsky had added scenes and rewritten others to meet the demands of the Directorate of the Imperial Theatres – who had been particularly worried by the absence of female roles in the original version – there was still a reluctance to stage the work. One factor that led to its eventual adoption by the Mariinsky was a concert performance of the Coronation Scene in 1872. Even from this extract it must have been clear that here was a new epic sound to match the scale of Russian history combined with a psychological perception that promised to be as profound as anything in the world of opera. The outer sections of the Coronation scene are concerned with the public aspect of the event, while the middle offers an insight into the private thoughts of newly crowned Tsar.

Wonderfully scored Kremlin bells ring out before Prince Shuisky addresses the people with the words “Long live Tsar Boris Feodorovich.” They respond with a sonorous chorus of acclaim based on a folk song much loved by Russian composers (Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky among them). Impressive though this is, the greatness of the scene rests in the first of the monologues that have made Boris one of the most challenging and yet most rewarding of all bass roles. Even here, as he appears in the porch of the Cathedral of the Assumption, he seems to be troubled by guilt: “My soul is sad! Some involuntary fear has gripped my heart with ominous foreboding.” Although his mood now changes – as he turns to devout prayer, humility before “the departed rulers of Russia,” and a regal summons of the people to the coronation feast – his foreboding will eventually turn out be fully justified. The guilty act that brought him the imperial crown will be the cause of his death in the last act of the opera. For the moment, however, the people once again acclaim the Tsar Boris.