Opera Review: Everybody Dies

Khovanshchina at the Metropolitan Opera.

Olga Borodina tells the future as Marfa in Act II of Khovanshchina

On Monday night, the Metropolitan Opera brought back Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina for the first time since 1999. This revival came with a twist. Conductor Kirill Petrenko chose to perform the Shostakovich version of the score, but with the final scene orchestrated by Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel. This was the first Met performance to use the Stravinsky finale.

Khovanshchina (the title means "The Khovansky Affair") is best thought of not a historical drama but as a series of tableaux depicting events in and around Moscow in 1682 and 1689. The rise of Peter the Great is central to the opera, but Imperial edict stated that it was illegal to depict any Romanov tsar on the stage. 

Mussorgsky forged ahead anyway. Working in the last years of his life, he constructed a libretto from historical records. With Peter offstage, he placed dramatic focus on the opposition: the fanatical Old Believers, the rebellious Streltsy militia, and their leader, the boyar Ivan Khovansky, a real historical figure who lends the opera his name. The composer died at the age of 42, leaving a partially completed first act, piano sketches for the middle scenes, and mere text for the finale, the mass self-immolation of the Old Believers. There is an orchestration by Rimsky-Korsakov, one by Shostakovich, and parts of an arrangement by Stravinsky and Ravel.

This production boasted an all-star cast of Russian singers. Anatoly Kotscherga made an overdue house debut as Ivan Khovansky. He has been singing this role for over two decades, and he brought power and experience to the power-hungry boyar. Mr. Kotscherga also showed why every bass wants to play this part: Khovansky gets his own private ballet from six sexy Persian slave girls.

The second major bass part is Dosifey, leader of the Old Believers. Ildar Abdrazakov was resonant in the part, though he lack the last smooth bottom notes that can make this a terrifying part.  Mrs. Abdrazakov, better known as Olga Borodina played Marfa, Dosifey's disciple. She hit some extraordinary low notes in this part, as the mystic, psychic, yet sensual female lead.

George Gagnidze has an unattractive voice, but is a good stage presence. He was powerful as the boyar Shaklovity, one of the few survivors of the turmoil. Tenor Vladimir Galouzine was ideal as the scheming Prince Golytsin. The young Ukrainian tenor Misha Didyk, (making his house debut) sang with clear tone but was stuck in the role of Andrei Khovansky, one of the least gratifying tenor parts in the repertory.

The six loosely connected episodes that make up Khovanshchina can be a long evening. But the opera was dramatically involving, thanks to the quicksilver conducting of Kirill Petrenko. He kept the plot moving, with an energy that did not sacrifice the weight of Mussorgsky's music. He also did a superb job conducting the carefully coached choristers, who had a number of opportunities to prove that the Metropolitan Opera can be a fine house for Russian repertory, if the company just puts its mind to it.

Stravinsky's version of the final scene still has arias and numbers for Marfa, Andrey and Dosifey. But the last pages are all about the chorus. Crammed into a wooden church (built on the stage turntable), they created an apocalyptic vision. Candles in hand, their voices rose through the ancient Russian church modes. Time itself seemed to stop for five minutes, only moving forward again when the flames went up, and the gold curtain came down.

Concert Review: Brass from the Steel City

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra plays Lincoln Center.

Man of Steel: conductor Manfred Honeck leads the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been around for over a century. But the ensemble has never achieved the same prominence as other American orchestras. Sunday's concert at Avery Fisher Hall under the baton of music director Manfred Honeck indicate that good things are afoot in the Steel City.  Mr. Honeck leads an ensemble with a rich, robust tone quality, led by the trumpets and trombones. Percussion and wind playing were tight, and the carpet of strings (the heart of any orchestra's sound) was tightly woven. 

The concert opened with Silent Spring, a work composed for the PSO by composer-in-residence Steven Stucky. Mr. Stucky's work is inspired by the environmental writing of Rachel Carson. The sound recalls the nature-loving middle period of Richard Strauss (particularly the Alpine Symphony) with exotic tones formed from bell clusters, shimmering strings and complex percussion parts for multiple players. 

Hilary Hahn took the stage next, wrapped in a flame-orange gown that recalled Serge Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. That was appropriate, as the soloist was playing that composer's Violin Concerto, a lyric work steeped in Russian folk-song and lore. She began the work as a soliloquy for her instrument and expounded eloquently on the work's main theme. At the movement's close, the audience applauded.

The slow movement featured lyric, graceful playing against the orchestral fabric, a gauzy, lush sound that is antithetical to the industrial-strength writing usually associated with this composer. More applause greeted this movement, with the assembled audience clearly not knowing their concert manners.

The last movement, a kind of folk-tale in itself, provided ample opportunity for Ms. Hahn's fearless technique. This was Russa music of another time, evoking the mythic past of that great country before the Soviet revolution. She gave this work the strong performance it deserved, soaring up to the high trill by the bridge of her instrument and finishing with a flurry of well-placed notes. This time, the applause was on time, and entirely justified. She offered an encore, a graceful, nimble Sarabande from Bach's second Partita.

The second half of the concert featured a muscular, brass-driven reading of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. The Fifth is the exception among the late Tchaikovsky symphonies, coming between the soul-searching Fourth and the heart-rending Pathetique. The work also borrows from the composer's little-heard "Manfred" Symphony, with one theme serving as a melodic thread between four movements.

That theme starts as a funeral march before metamorphasizing into a triumphant, swaggering celebration. Mr. Honeck and his forces played this familiar music with ferocious intensity, with the brass leading the charge. Unfortunately, less experienced listeners in Avery Fisher Hall jumped the gun again. Thinking that the work had ended, they applauded. Mr. Honeck ignored them, and drove the last bars forward, finishing the work in a blaze of sound.

The concert ended with another encore: the Galop from Aram Khachturian's Maskarad Suite. Given the opportunity to play an extended clarinet cadenza, PSO principal Michael Rusenick added a few bars of Leonard Bernstein's "New York, New York" from On The Town. It was a charming way to end a strong concert.

Egyptian Plague Strikes Soprano

Sondra Radvanovsky to sing Aida.

She's in the Egyptian business: Sondra Radvanovsky.

The winter flu bug has struck Egypt--and the Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera press office announced today that soprano Sondra Radvanovsky will sing her first Aida at the Met tomorrow, replacing Violeta Urmana, who is ill.

Ms. Radvanovsky is an up-and-coming soprano who rose to stardom at the Met with the company's 2009 production of Il Trovatore. She has sung Aida before, but in the much smaller role of the (offstage) Priestess in Act I.

Her last appearances at the Met were in the spring of 2011, where she sang the title role in Tosca and reprised the role of Leonora in Trovatore. Next season, she will sing the role of Elisabetta de Valois in Don Carlo.

The rest of the cast, which features Marcelo Álvarez as Radames and Stephanie Blythe in the role of Amneris, remains unchanged.

For a full review of the Met's Aida starring Ms. Urmana and Ms. Blythe, visit this page on Superconductor.