MUSORGSKY : KHOVANSHCHINA

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 20th of August 2017 at 6 - 10 pm
Sunday 18th of October 2015 at 6.04 - 9.20 pm
Sunday 22nd of April 2012 at 3.03-7.35 pm

INTRODUCTION 
SYNOPSIS
PREVIEW (2012)
REVIEW(2012)
REVIEW (with pictures)

MUSSORGSKY: Khovanshchina, an opera in five acts,
set during the reign of Peter the Great, highlighting the 'Strel'tsï Revolts', the struggles out of which the modern Russian state emerged, and the conservatism of the fanatical Old Believers.
2017
Ante Jerkunica (Ivan Khovansky), Christopher Ventris (Andrey Khovansky), Vsevolod Grivnov (Golitsin), Elena Maximova (Marfa), Slovak Philharmonic Chorus, BBC Singers, BBC SO/Semyon Bychkov (recorded by the BBC, Royal Albert Hall, London)
2015
Prince Ivan Khovansky.............. Dmitry Ulyanov
Prince Andrey Khovansky......... Nikolay Erokhin
Prince Vasiliy Golitsin............... Nazhmiddin Mavlyanov
Dosifey...................................... Denis Makarov
Boyar Fyodor Shaklovity.......... Anton Zaraev
Marfa......................................... Ksenia Dudnikova
Susanna...................................... Irina Vashchenko
Scrivener.................................... Valery Mikitsky
Emma......................................... Elena Guseva
Varsonofyev.............................. Vladimir Svistov
Kuz'ka........................................ Dmitry Polkopin
Streshnev................................... Dmitry Kondratkov
Orch of the Stanislavsky & Nemirovich-Danchenko, Moscow/Alexander Lazarev (recorded in the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, Moscow by Russian Radio, Moscow)
2012
Ivan Khovansky............ Anatoli Kotscherga
Andrey Khovansky....... Misha Didyk
Golitsin.......................... Vladimir Galouzine
Dosifey......................... Ildar Abdrazakov
Fyodor.......................... George Gagnidze
Marfa............................ Olga Borodina
Susanna........................ Maria Gavrilova
Scrivener....................... John Easterlin
Emma........................... Wendy Bryn Harmer
Varsonofyev.................. David Crawford
Kuzka........................... Mark Schowalter
Streshnev...................... Michael Todd Simpson
First Strelyets................ Paul Corona
Second Strelyets........... Jeffrey Wells
Servant......................... Jeffrey Mosher
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Kirill Petrenko

This is another historical music drama of Modest Mus(s)orgsky (1839-1881), like his Boris Godunov (1552-1605, Tsar from 1598). Khovanshchina is set in the time of Peter the Great (1672-1725, Tsar from 1682, and sole monarch from 1689), the ruler who endeavoured to modernize Russia; his time in a Dutch shipyard as a carpenter, incognito, is the subject of Lortzing's opera Zar und Zimmermann (Tsar and carpenter). The title Khovanshchina means "the filthy mess of Prince Ivan Khovansky", who was the commander of the Streltsy storm troopers. (The Khovansky Affair is the common translation, but the -shchina ending is very pejorative.)
   The composer did not produce an orchestrated score, and, as with Boris Godunov, Rimsky-Korsakov took it in hand and corrected what he saw as its defects, for the first performance in 1911 in the Mariinsky theatre in Saint Petersburg (the city founded by Tsar Peter). Stravinsky and Ravel reworked it for Diaghilev in Paris (1913); and Shostakovich prepared it anew for the Kirov (Mariinsky) theatre in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) (1960).
   The recording in my collection is from the Sofia National Opera, with Nicolai Ghiaurov as Prince Ivan Khovansky, and conductor Emil Tchakarov. (Sony CD).

More Russian history from Modest [I am ever so humble] Mussorgsky (we had his Boris [I am not good enough] Godunov a few weeks ago. Now it is the time of Peter the Great in the 18th Century, and all is turmoil and turbulence (from turba, 'a crowd', so there will be a large chorus for the Moscow mass turbation and massacres).