Mainly Opera and Ballet
This second revival of the Royal Opera’s production from 2016 was a triumph for Bryn Terfel who gave a beautifully nuanced performance in the title role. The opera features a densely packed sequence of events in a formative period of modern Russia at what in England would be the Tudor period. See my review in …
This production uses Musorgsky’s vibrant, original version, with several singers returning to the roles they performed when this production was new in 2016. Again Bryn Terfel was magnificent as a powerfully sympathetic and well-nuanced Boris, with David Butt Philip giving a mean performance as the novice Grigory (Dmitri the pretender). New to the role of …
The background to this opera is the reign of Ivan the Terrible, who curbed the power of the boyars and surrounded himself with reliable, talented men such as Boris Godunov, who became regent to the weak-minded Fyodor on Ivan’s death. During the regency, a later son named Dmitri died in slightly mysterious circumstances, and after …
