Questions of editions and orchestration aside, Modest Mussorgsky's penetrating, powerful and potent four-act Boris Godunov, arguably the greatest Russian opera of the 19th c., requires no less than a figure of towering stature to portray this late 16th - early 17th c. Russian Czar. This 1958 Covent Garden performance led by Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik, in his last year as the Royal Opera House music director, has such a figure in Boris Christoff, a bass of considerable vocal and acting talent. Josephine Veasey, Geraint Evans and Regina Resnik, among other cast members, prove no less formidable.
Questions of editions and orchestration aside, Modest Mussorgsky's penetrating, powerful and potent four-act Boris Godunov, arguably the greatest Russian opera of the 19th c., requires no less than a figure of towering stature to portray this late 16th - early 17th c. Russian Czar. This 1958 Covent Garden performance led by Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik, in his last year as the Royal Opera House music director, has such a figure in Boris Christoff, a bass of considerable vocal and acting talent. Josephine Veasey, Geraint Evans and Regina Resnik, among other cast members, prove no less formidable.
