Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina

Staged, directed and designed by Dmitri Tcherniakov

Kent Nagano superbly masters the challenges presented by this score, shapes the dynamics with subtle intensity, and casts the score in a mellow glow.

As Marfa, the spurned lover of Ivan Khovansky‘s son Andrei, Doris Soffel unfolds such a rich palette of sonorities, from the pathos of the lower ranges to shaded distant heights, that “one is tempted to speak of a Russian mezzo”.

Fantastic cast: Anatoly Kotscherga portrays the religious leader Dosifei with fervor and bluster, Klaus Florian Vogt dazzles heroically as Andrey, John Daszak is a technically flawless Golitsin, and bass-baritone Paata Burchuladze gives a charismatic, forceful account of Prince Ivan Khovansky.

The final chorus, which Mussorgsky did not compose, is played in the orchestrally transparent version of Igor Stravinsky – the third great Russian composer who contributed to making “Khovanshchina“ a gripping stage work for all times.

With his stripped-down sets and historicizing costumes, director Dmitri Tcherniakov, one of the new voices of contemporary Russian theater, builds a bridge to the political present.

Picture format: 1080i Full HD 16:9

Sound formats: PCM 2.0, DTS-HD Master Audio Surround

Region code: All (worldwide)

Subtitles (Bonus): German English, French, Spanish

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 172 mins

Staged, directed and designed by Dmitri Tcherniakov

Mussorgsky's monumental Khovanshchina is regarded as one of the most important works of Russian Opera.The five-act opera about the Moscow Uprising of 1682 was unfinished and unperformed when the composer died in 1881.The 'national music drama', as it is subtitled, received its first performance inan edition by Rimsky-Korsakov in 1886. Shostakovich later unveiled his own orchestration on 25 November 1960 at the Mariinsky Theatre.Young Russian director and stage designer Dmitri Tcherniakov has made his name as a specialist in Russian repertoire in St. Petersburg and at the Bolshoi in Moscow and recently with a spectacular Boris Godunov at the Berlin State Opera.The acclaimed première of this production at the Bavarian State Opera in March 2007 initiated a series of operas from the Slavic repertoire.With renowned singers Paata Burchuladze, Doris Soffel and Klaus Florian Vogt under Kent Nagano's musical direction, the opera is sung in Russian. It draws us into a bloody power struggle in dark Russia just before the modernist reforms of Peter the Great.The final chorus, which Musorgsky did not compose, is played in the orchestrally transparent version of Igor Stravinsky, the third great Russian composer who contributed to making Khovanshchina a gripping stage work for all times.

NTSC · 16:9, PCM Stereo · DD 5.1 · DTS 5.1

Region Code: 0

Booklet Notes: GB, D, F

Languages: RU, Subtitles: GB, D, F, E

Running Time: 172 mins