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By Joel Kasow
PARIS, 6 November 2002 - Moussorgsky's Boris Godunov,
the first new production of the season at the Opéra National de
Paris, was entrusted to Francesca Zambello, a Gall favorite, who seems
most at home in large-scale works. Unfortunately, on this occasion she
was betrayed by designer Wolfgang Gussmann whose sets resulted in some
awkward staging moments.
Ms. Zambello seems to have taken
her cue from Shakespeare and Faulkner, using the Idiot as a framing
device, present at the start during the first two scenes, then
reappearing for Act 4 and never leaving the stage from then on. While
Boris is definitely Shakespearean in its construction, it is
certainly not "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing". Gussmann's design featured a false
proscenium of painted icons, approximately 8 meters deep, which could
be closed off by a back wall of more icons so that set changes could
take place behind. Unfortunately, this meant that the Coronation Scene
began with Boris and his retinue putting on their fancy clothes, the
back wall then opening for the crowd scene. Worse still, all the crowd
pushed onto the forestage so that the back wall could close at the
end, leaving everyone to make an awkward exit while we were treated to
an unwritten tolling of the bell, all this so that a white box could
be placed in the deeper playing area for the scene between Pimen and
Dmitri.
One wonders who's the boss, the designer or the
director, the former sometimes pushing the latter to find interesting
solutions, more often simply creating insoluble problems. The globe or
map usually seen in Act 2 was replaced by a set of blocks that could
later be tossed around as Boris hallucinated.
Ms. Zambello,
as many of her colleagues, falls into the trap of including
unnecessary actors on the stage whose presence is not required by the
composer or librettist, in this case having Xenia as a distracting
presence during the death of Boris, or Marina as part of Dmitri's
procession in the last act. Is this because today singers are not
allowed to take a bow at the end of their last scene in the opera so
that they can have an early evening but must demonstrate their
collegiality by remaining until the end of the opera to acknowledge
the applause together?
Julian Konstantinov (Boris), Anke Vondung (Fyodor), Ekaterina Morosova
(Xenia)
Photo: Eric Mahoudeau
James Conlon, as is the
custom these days, conducted Moussorgsky's own version rather than the
more spectacular Rimsky-Korsakov. It is clearly a score he loves, and
this comes through to both orchestra and audience. In the title role,
Julian Konstantinov struggled with his high notes, lacking a certain
presence that not even his great height could impart. Vladimir Matorin
(Pimen) and Vladimir Ognovenko (Varlaam)-both also interpreters of the
title role-the former making the most of his confrontation with
Boris, and Sergei Murzaev (Shchelkalov) and Valeri Alexeev (Rangoni)
demonstrated the range of excellence available among Russian basses
and baritones today.
The distinctive sound of tenor
Konstantin Pluzhnikov (Shuisky) is familiar from both live
performances and CDs. Robert Brubaker (Dmitri), one of the few
non-Russians in the cast, held up the honors despite a few fumbled
high notes, perhaps because he was confined upstage by the designer
for most of his appearances.
Olga Borodina did not
disappoint as Marina, authoritative but also cajoling. Anke Vondung
(Fyodor), Ekaterina Morosova (Xenia) and Irina Bogacheva (Nurse) did
the domestic honors, with Irina Tchistiakova a quite spirited but not
always audible Innkeeper. Vsevolod Grivnov was a touching Simpleton,
just the right clarity of tone for his final lament but also the force
to confront Boris.
Olga
Borodina (Marina), Robert Brubaker (Dmitri)
Photo: Eric Mahoudeau
Joel
Kasow is the Operanet editor of Culturekiosque.com..
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