Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina ~ Gergiev

Reading the reviews below is like stepping into an old family squabble. As an outsider, I am mostly at a loss over what the argument is about. If you discount all the contention over which edition to use, the superior of Bulgarian singing over Russian, and other arcana, this is a fine recording, full of drama and eminently musical from beginning to end. Gergiev's conducting is masterful. He shows a light, lyrical touch throughout, a blessing in an opera where competing religious sects spend a lot of time declaiming and out-shouting one another. By comparison, the highly regarded Abbado recording on DG is more aggressive. All the singers here are up to their parts, exhibiting Gergiev's preference for an ensemble cast rather than a starry one--Olga Borodina is the only singer who has gained an international reputation.Perhpas experts in Slavic opera can find fault, but those of us coming new to Khovanshchina can't help but marvel at its melodic genius and emotional intensity, at its fervent spirituality and primal cultural clashes. In sum, a very appealing set.

I bought Khovanschina on a whim because I like Moussorgsky and this opera is quite wonderful. The operas prelude "Dawn Over the River Moscow" is one of the most beautiful preludes I have ever heard. There is also some fimilar (mainstream classical) pieces taken from this Russian masterpiece.Conducting, orchestra, and vocals (especially Olga Borodina) are all fine here.Truly a beautiful peace that I highly recommend. Full of lovely chorus'.

I want to emphasize just what a terrific opera Modest Mussorgsky's "Khovanschina" is. Overlooked because it wasn't fully complete on the composer's death and existing in the shade of the great "Boris Godunov", "Khovanschina" is one of the best operas to come out of the 19th-century. It combines originality with a sure melodic gift. The originality is simply striking: there is heavy use of bare modal thematic fragments, often in a static, repetitive harmonic frame, and instrumented in a sparse way that makes it a clear ancestor of Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" from 40 years later. The melodies are wonderful, with many themes that are instantly memorable. I won't put the opera on the level of "Carmen" or "Tristan" but it is honestly at the tier right below that, as good as say "Aida" or "Barber of Seville".The fact that Mussorgsky, an alcoholic and likely a closeted homosexual who led a chaotic life, left the score of "Khovanschina" in disarray on his death in 1881 hasn't helped the opera's standing. Two of the acts are left incomplete, Act IV was not orchestrated, and the ordering of the scenes is also up in the air. The opera also has plot difficulties, as Mussorgsky wrote the bulk of the opera in disjointed bursts of activity in the 1870s, without a libretto really existing. All of these drawbacks put "Khovanischina" at a disadvantage. But those disadvantages aren't sufficient to offset the brilliance of the concluding prayer in Act I, cadencing with a massive imitation gong sound in the orchestra, or the Persian dance in Act IV, one of the most attractive Russian dances written, just two of many examples of the opera's great moments.Into the breach of the "Khovanschina" manuscript stepped Mussorgsky's friend, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who rewrote significant portions of it, making it a less novel, more traditional work, much to its detriment, in my opinion. Another great Russian composer, Dmitri Shostakovich took the original manuscript and removed many of the changes introduced by Rimsky-Korsakov, in 1958.It is this Shostakovich version that Russian maestro Valery Gergiev fortunately opted to use in this 1991 Kirov Opera performance under review here. Gergiev's contribution to this performance is easily the best of the performers. I found his balancing of the instruments to be outstanding and natural. The singing is generally good without being better than that. The biggest name in cast is mezzo Olga Borodina, in the role of Marfa, and she is oddly the weakest of the leads, with some ragged singing in her earlier numbers. I also found the chorus to be just ok. None of this is helped by a muddy and substandard engineering job from Philips (the later Kirov Opera releases on this label are better).Because of the average singing and the below-par sound, I am downgrading this CD set to 4 stars, but classical and opera fans should seek out "Khovanschina", a remarkable composition.

Gergiev is not at all Slavic in his interpretations of Russian opera. Some of his efforts succeed in their own right (Pique Dame, Iolanta) but mostly he tends to dull, shapeless conducting. There's a lack of dramatic vigor that departs from the Russian conducting traditon.He's successful as a business man and he has indeed awakened the West to the wonders of Russian opera.But look to the past - to the former, great Soviet conductors - to hear how these operas should sound. Golovanov, Melik-Pashaev, Khaikin, Kondrashin, even Svetlanov are not only authentic, but are thrilling and gifted conductors who understand the soul of Russian music. Their singers have the fire, insight, acting ability and vocal beauty that this great music demands.For Khovanshchina, the Khaikin version is magnificent. The singing and conducting are thrilling, dramatic and filled with the ring of cultural and spiritual authenticity that Russian opera requires. This recording is available for a ridiculously small price on the Aura Music label [..].Stanislavsky once said that the greatest actors he'd ever seen were Russian opera singers. The tradition of great acting held the opera stage for years in Russian houses, as can be heard and seen on many older Soviet recordings and on Vera Stroyeya's film of Boris Godunov, a priceless artifact of this great dramatic tradition. Pirogov makes Robert Lloyd look like a pathetic imitation of the real item.There is a missing-in-action Khovanshchina directed by Stroyeva on VHS, starring the immortal Mark Reizen. Reizen was Stalin's favorite bass - a Jewish singer who escaped the grim, lethal destiny of many of Russia's Jews because of the beauty of his voice and Stalin's unpredictable approval. This film is owned by Mosfilms Studios in Russia. We can only hope that they one day release this treasure.Russian opera and Russian music in general require the power, drama and attack of their unique traditional, indigenous artists. Today, unfortunately, we can only find this on rare but precious old recordings. The quality of sound may not be as high-tech as some would like, but one has to make a decision: art or technology.