Boris at the Bolshoi

Representatives of the Big Four nations found one thing in Moscow last week they could all agree on: never had they seen more splendiferous opera.

It was Russia's most famed, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. And it was the first production of it in Moscow in twelve years: it was too expensive, too big and too lavish to produce often, particularly during wartime austerity. But when the Bolshoi Theater a year ago decided to revive it, the Soviet Government didn't spare the rubles. Early last year Producer L. Baratov assembled his huge cast, began lecturing them on the history and customs of the period (1598-1605). They toured the Kremlin, the Historical Museum and the Novo-Devichi and Donskoi monasteries to absorb the proper atmosphere.

Last week, Moscow operagoers were seeing a performance of Boris that justified its labor pains. A chorus of 180 voices rocketed Mussorgsky's somber music to the gilded ceiling of the huge red & gold Bolshoi Theater. A whole class of children from the Bolshoi ballet school, as well as a large company of nonsinging extras, filled out the stage. Standout scene: the coronation, full of massive bells, the swelling crescendos of the huge orchestra and blazing pageantry.

Visitors found only one flaw: the soloists were a notch below the rest of the production. The Moscow News critic, D. Rabinovich, had another complaint to make: the crowning of a Czar had been made altogether too happy an event. (Even Mussorgsky, no Communist, had not intended that.) Wrote Critic Rabinovich: "One does not feel the forced note in their 'gaiety'. . . the very magnificence of the coronation scene creates a false impression of brightness and joy instead of its being somber and sinister."

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