FULL Khovanshchina Vladivostok 2022 Tatiana Makarchuk, Sergei Pleshivtsev, Anatoly Badayev, Roman Krukovich

• Work Title: Khovanshchina aka Hovánščina  
• Composer: Mussorgsky Modest  
• Libretto: Modest Mussorgsky    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theater, Vladivostok, Russia  
• Recorded: May 29, 2022
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Tatiana Makarchuk, Sergei Pleshivtsev, Anatoly Badayev, Roman Krukovich, Mergen Sandanov, Marat Mukhametzyanov, Vsevolod Marilov
• Conductor: Pavel Smelkov  
• Orchestra:
• Chorus Master: Konstantin Rylov  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Date Published: 2022  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• Video Recording from: YouTube     FULL VIDEO
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Modest Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina is a distinctive name in Russian operatic music. It is no wonder that critics have dubbed the opera a “chronicle of Russian life”, and the composer himself has named it nothing less than a “national musical drama”. The historical plot and individual music language closely resembling intonations of living speech, a large cast and “speaking” orchestra are the components that have enabled this composition to be of paramount importance.

There is no striking love strand in the opera. This is one of the peculiar features that mark it out of other popular operas. Khovanshchina cuts across other profound and global issues. The bloody strife for power and battle for influence in the largest country, the fidelity and vile betrayal of former friends and allies, the right or proven faith for which people can suffer martyrdom are just some themes risen by the opera. In Khovanshchina, the love between a man and a woman is shown only as an ugly extreme. It is either an overmastering violent passion as between Andrey Khovansky and Emma or a bigoted possessiveness with determination to burn the object of one’s affections rather than to give her to another man as between Andrey Khovansky and Marfa.

Musorgsky’s score is excitingly exuberant and realistic. Various large-scale choral scenes, lyrical arias of heroes and heroines, highly emotional dialogues, and colorful orchestral canvases able to depict everything – from the dawn on the Moscow River to the terrible tragic fire – have generated its own musical universe. This is the reason why performing Khovanshchina in concert is not a middle-ground alternative to performing it in scenery but a self-contained format that allows the public to hear all rich voices and understand all subtleties in this great operatic drama.

Natalia Rogudeeva