Opera Review: Taking the Apple

Opera company bows at Carnegie Hall with Gugliemo Tell
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Revolutionary conductor Gianandrea Noseda brought William Tell
to Carnegie Hall on Dec. 7.

Presenting William Tell, the four-act grand opera that prematurely ended the compositional career of Gioachino Rossini in 1829 is no easy task. The opera is huge, with four epic acts that try an audience's patience even when conductors make judicious (and sometimes deep) cuts. The opera marks an important transition between Italian bel canto and the grand opera of the French stage. Its libretto recounts the feats of the title character and his role as a farmer turned crossbow-wielding revolutionary and Swiss folk hero. For an opera company making both its Carnegie Hall and New York debuts, Tell is an unlikely choice.

DVD Review: Catch a Falling Tsar

A new edit of Boris Godunov from Turin.
by Paul Pelkonen

Throne for a loop: Orlin Anastassov in Andre Koncalovsky
Photo by Ramanella & Giannese @ 2010 Fondazione Teatro Regio di Torino.

In 1869, Modest Mussorgsky first submitted his opera Boris Godunov to the Imperial Theater. It was rejected for its lack of female characters and novel dramatic structure that placed equal emphasis on the plight of the titular Tsar and the suffering of the Russian people. His later revision (with some tweaking by Rimsky-Korsakov) was a success in 1874.

Today, opera directors and conductors usually choose one of these two versions. This DVD from OpusArte, shot in 2010 at the Teatro Regio del Turin, offers a compromise. Director Andre Konchalovsky chooses the 1869 version of Boris for its dramatic momentum, but inserts the finale of the revised version (the march of the false tsar Dmitry through the Kromy Forest) between the St. Basil's scene and the death of Boris.

Orlin Anastassov is a youthful, convincing Boris, giving the impression from the get-go of being in over his political head. His Mad Scene is something to behold, acted with wide, staring eyes, the camera unforgiving and in his face. Heldentenor Ian Storey sings with loud, raw tone as Grigory, the monk who becomes the false Dmitri. Unaccountably, he is alone in the Kromy Forest scene--his paramour Marina (star of the missing "Polish Act") does not appear in this production.