Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Mattheson: Boris Goudenow

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov (1874) lies at the fringe of the international operatic repertoire and it has a not inconsiderable discography, from which I have drawn various recordings for broadcast over the decades. Various distinguished bassos have essayed the title role: Feodor Chaliapin, Boris Christoff, and Martti Talvela spring to mind. Personally, I think nothing beats Mussorgsky's only complete opera for dramatic power, especially as a character study in guilt, making it the alltime greatest Russian opera, surely, and arguably the single greatest operatic tragedy of the nineteenth century. But Musssorgsky's BG is not the only such work about the 16th century Russian Czar.

There's a Boris Goudenow in German language by the baroque opera composer, Johann Mattheson (1681-1764). The only lyric theater work by Mattheson I have previously aired is a Christmas oratorio, Das grösste Kind (1720?), heard in a German CPO label CD release on this program on Sunday, December 18, 2016. The manuscript of this work was discovered in Armenia and returned to Hamburg in Germany, where Mattheson lived and worked, in 1998. Also discovered among this same cache of Mattheson's manuscript scores is his opera Boris Goudenow (1710), intended for performance at Hamburg's Goose Market opera house but never staged there. The politics of the Baltic region and the insecure position close by of the independent international seaport of Hamburg seem to have figured in this.

In Mattheson's opera, Boris is not a usurper and child murderer as he is in Mussorgsky's operatic treatment. This Boris is involved in the amorous intrigues going on in the Kremlin between foreign noble suitors and two marriageable Russian princesses, of which his daughter Xenia (here called Axinia) is one. Mattheson's opera ends with Boris' coronation, which is where Mussorgsky's opera begins. It was recorded live in performance at the 2021 Innsbruck Festival Week for early music. Andrea Marchiol directs the period instrument ensemble Theresia and a cast of eight vocal soloists. A brand new 2022 release through CPO on two silver discs. I invite you to listen to this other BG opera and decide for yourself: is this Boris good enough for you?