The Time of Troubles comes to Bard College with Dimitrij.
by Paul J. Pelkonen
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| Family snapshot: the false tsar Dimitrij (Clay Hilley, center) flanked by Marfa (Nora Sourouzian) and Marina, his wife (Melissa Citro). Photo courtesy Bard College and Bard SummerScape. |
The operas of Antonín Dvorak are central to the repertory in that composer’s native land, but apart from Rusalka, remain neglected here in the United States. That may change after this weekend, when Bard SummerScape offered the first fully staged U.S. Performances of Dimitrij. Planned to be Dvorak's breakthrough international success, this opera is his most ambitious stage work: an absorbing, turbulent drama chronicling the start of the Time of Troubles, the most turbulent period in Russian history,
