BORIS GODUNOV

Opera in four acts with a prologue, in Russian, with Hungarian and English subtitles

One of the most remarkable productions of the OPERA's 2023/24 Slavic Season is Boris Godunov by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. This work of Russian opera, based on Alexander Pushkin's drama of the same title, returns to the Opera House after more than twenty years, and in the light of the recent years' aspirations and the traditions, in its original version. Therefore, it is not in the arrangement and orchestration by Rimsky-Korsakov that many are familiar with and that is most often performed, but in the original Mussorgsky version, which has a much more suspenseful, condensed plot than the other one. Thus, the play focuses even more on the psychological state of the characters: Mussorgsky creates a refined musical portrait of his characters. András Almási-Tóth's production and interpretation mixes historical time with the present, turning the romantic-historical work into a contemporary psychological thriller with elements of horror, where events take place on several timelines simultaneously.