1
Modest Mussorgsky
(1839–1881)
Khovanshchina Complete recording · National music drama in five acts Libretto by the composer after Vladimir V. Stasov Orchestrated by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Prince Ivan Khovansky, head of the musketeers.........DIMITER PETKOV Prince Andrey Khovansky, his son...............................TODOR KOSTOV Dosifey, leader of the Old Believers .......................NICOLA GHIUSELEV Marfa, a young widow, an Old Believer ....ALEXANDRINA MILCHEVA Emma, a young girl from the German quarter ....MARIA DIMCHEVSKA Susanna, an Old Believer .................................NADYA DOBRIYANOVA Prince Vasily Golitsin ...................................LYOUBOMIR BODOUROV Varsonofyev, Golitsin’s attendant ..........................DIMITER DIMITROV Shaklovity, a boyar .......................................................STOYAN POPOV Streshnev, a boyar ............................................VERTER VRACHOVSKY Kuzka, a musketeer ...............................................DIMITER DIMITROV A Scribe .....................................................................MILEN PAOUNOV First Musketeer .........................................................STEFAN ELENKOV Second Musketeer .................................................NEDELCHO PAVLOV Bulgarian National Choir ‘Svetoslav Obretenov’ chorus master Georgi Robev Sofia National Opera Orchestra Atanas Margaritov
2
Compact Disc 1
39’10
Act 1 1 Introduction. Dawn over the Moskva River (Orchestra) Scene 1 2 Podojdu, podojdu… pod Ivangorod (Kuzka/First and Second Musketeers) Scene 2 3 Gusja tocit…Cernilisce-to, gospodi (Scribe/Musketeers/Shaklovity/Kuzka) Scene 3 4 Bol’soj idet (Scribe/Musketeers/People/Ivan Khovansky) Scene 4 5 Ostav’te, pustite menja (Andrey Khovansky/Emma/Marfa) Scene 5 6 I V nej, V luce cudesnom (Andrey Khovansky/Emma/Marfa/Ivan Khovansky/Musketeers/People) Scene 6 7 Stoj! Besnovatye! (Andrey Khovansky/Emma/Marfa/IvanKhovansky/ Musketeers/People/Dosifey/Old Believers) Compact Disc 2
5’12 2’27 7’53 6’45 4’07 3’13 9’33 61’27
Act 2 Scene 1 4’05 1 Svet moj, hratec Vasen’ka (Golitsin/Varsonofyev) Scene 2 2 K vam, knajze, rovno by v zasadu popadaes (Golitsin/Marfa/Varsonofyev) 6’29 Scene 3 3 Vot v cem resen’e (Golitsin/Ivan Khovansky) 6’23 Scene 4 4 Knjas’ja, smiri vas gnev (Golitsin/Ivan Khovansky/Dosifey/Old Believers) 5’30 Scene 5 5 Knjaze, knjaze! Ne veli kaznit veli milovat! 1’02 (Golitsin/Ivan Khovansky/Dosifey/Old Believers/Marfa/Varsonofyev) 6 Scene 6 1’43 (Golitsin/Ivan Khovansky/Dosifey/Old Believers/Marfa/Varsonofyev/Shaklovity)
3
Act 3 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Scene 1 Posramichom, posramichom (Old Believers/Marfa) Scene 2 Marfa’s Song: Ischodila miadesen’ka (Marfa) Scene 3 Grech! Tjazkij, neiskupimyi grech (Susanna/Marfa/Dosifey) Scene 4 Ach ty, moja kasata, poterpi malen’ko (Marfa/Dosifey) Scene 5 Spit streleckoe gnezdo (Shaklovity) Scene 6 Podnimasja, molodcy (Shaklovity/Musketeers/Kuzka) Scene 7 Beda, beda... ach, zlejsaja (Shaklovity/Musketeer/Kuzka/Scribe) Scene 8 Strel’cy! Sprosim batju (Musketeers/Kuzka/Ivan Khovansky) Compact Disc 3
Tableau 2 3’06 3’46 7’47 4’36
4’57 3’37 4’45
Act 5 3’08 3’28 5’50 62’21
Tableau 1
4
3’45
4’28
Act 4 Scene 1 1 Vozle recki, na luzocke noceval ja (Ivan Khovansky/Peasant Women) Scene 2 2 Ty zacem? Osmelilsja vojti? (Ivan Khovansky/Varsonofyev/Peasant Women) Scene 3 3 Dance of the Persian Slaves (Orchestra) Scene 4 4 Ty zacem…K tebe, knajz’ (Ivan Khovansky/Varsonofyev/Peasant Women/Shaklovity)
Scene 5 5 Gijan’-ko! Vezut (People of Moscow) Scene 6 6 Sversiloja resenie sud’by (Dosifey/Marfa) Scene 7 7 Ah, ty zdes’, zlodejka! (Marfa/Andrey Khovansky) Scene 8 8 Gospodi, bose moj! Vse pogiblo (Marfa/Andrey Khovansky/Musketeers/Streshnev)
Scene 1 9 Zdes’, na etom meste svatje (Dosifey) Scene 2 10 Bratija! (Dosifey/Marfa/Old Believers) 11 Brag celovekow, Knjaz’ mira sego vassta! (Chorus of Old Believers) Scene 3 12 Podviglis’ (Marfa/Andrey Khovansky/Dosifey) Scene 4 13 Finale: Gospodi slavy, grjadi vo slavu tvoju! (Marfa/Andrey Khovansky/Dosifey/Old Believers)
5’39 5’47 2’32 9’36 3’14
4’13 2’18 6’47 5’01
5
Seen from below: the history of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina from the viewpoint of the people In 1872, while dealing with the adjustments to Boris Godunov that the theatre authorities had demanded – such as the introduction to the so-called ‘Polish scenes’ – Modest Mussorgsky was already occupied with the subject of Khovanshchina. The opera was very likely to have been the middle part of a trilogy of musical dramas of the people, with Boris Godunov as the first part and Pugachyovshchina, a work about the revolt of the Cossacks and peasants in the years 1773–5, as the conclusion. This was again a period of turmoil in Russian history that Mussorgsky was portraying: that of the great streltsi [militia] revolt in 1682 and the rule of the Tsarevna Sophia Alexeyevna as guardian of her feeble-minded brother Ivan as well as his half-brother Peter, a minor, who later overthrew her and reigned as Peter I, named ‘the Great’. Posterity, completely divided in its opinions, sees in this ruler either the saviour who established enlightened Western thought in Russia or the one who ruined Russia. He boldly sowed enlightenment with a strong hand, wrote Alexander Pushkin. On the other hand, the composer Balakirev, a member of the ‘mighty handful’, maintained that Peter I had destroyed Russian individuality. Clashes between Western and nationalistic Russian ways of thought marked intellectual life in Mussorgsky’s time too – for example the opposition between composers inclined to Western aesthetics like, for instance, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and the St Petersburg ‘mighty handful’ group of composers, to which Mussorgsky belonged, dedicated to the specifically Russian element in their music, which suggests that the composer approached the subject treated in Khovanshchina with enthusiasm. ‘I revel in collecting material, my head glows like a cauldron under which a fire is constantly being stoked up’, he wrote on 13 July 1872 to Vladimir Stasov, the spiritual father of the ‘mighty handful’. It is interesting, incidentally, that – as the musicologist 6
and specialist on Russian opera Sigrid Neef states – in his historical studies Mussorgsky did not rely on the large standard work on Russian history, Nikolai Karamsin’s History of the Russian State (1816–26), but far more on eyewitness accounts from the time of Peter I and on the 29-volume History of Russia from the Earliest Times by Sergei Soloviev, which appeared in 1851. ‘The composer avoided presentations of history in which attempts were made to legitimise autocracy. He concentrated on works that made authentic sources accessible to him’ (Neef). Among these also were the 5-volume Chronicle of Russian Literature and Antiquity by the Moscow philologist Tikhonranrev, in which documents of the ‘Raskolniki movement’ were published for the first time. The ‘Raskolniki’, the ‘Old Believers’, had not supported Peter the Great’s reforms relating to the Russian Orthodox faith, and from then on they were persecuted – up to Stalin’s time and even beyond. The religious struggle of the Old Believers is one of the two strata of the plot of Khovanshchina. The other, as has been said, goes back to the Moscow revolt of the streltsi in 1682, which was brutally put down. These events were, admittedly, not treated according to their historical course. ‘Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina are not portrayals of Russian history even when history is represented in them. What is realised here is a “view from below”, a “perspective of history without a commander’s view”’ (Sigrid Neef). And the oppressed and suffering people are always the real heroes of the action. Modest Mussorgsky worked on Khovanshchina until his death in 1881, at first absolutely feverishly, then at ever greater intervals. Worries of existence, depression and extreme alcoholism made his creative powers increasingly run dry. A concert performance of parts of the work in 1879 brought Mussorgsky bitter criticism from his friends and completely disheartened him. The vocal score of Khovanshchina that was left is, however, complete as far as the close of the second act and the finale of the fifth; the composer had not started on the orchestration. Mussorgsky’s friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov produced an orchestral version of the 7
work – with large cuts – in 1883, and three years later, on 21 February 1886, this was performed for the first time in St Petersburg. Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky re-orchestrated the work on a commission from Sergei Diaghilev in the years 1912–13; in this Igor Stravinsky completed the composition of the Act 5 finale. In 1931 the musical scholar Pavel Lamm published Mussorgsky’s vocal score; between 1939 and 1959 Dmitri Shostakovich produced, on this basis, a further version in which he was guided in his instrumentation by the score of the original version of Boris Godunov. If in the latter work Mussorgsky had, in this melodic structure, partly based himself on classical models, in Khovanshchina he looked musically to the future, in that he made the vocal melody grow entirely from natural speech patterns. As to the opera’s title: the suffix ‘-china’ was added to names of families who had offended against prevailing ideas of morality and who were thus pilloried, as it were. As Shaklovity reports in Khovanshchina, Peter I called the bids for power by Prince Khovansky and his son a ‘Khovanshchina’, that is, in English, a ‘dastardly Khovansky plot’. ‘When Musorgsky has the boyar Shaklovity say that Tsar Peter has labelled the Khovansky princes with this suffix, sentence is pronounced on them’ (Neef).
Synopsis Act One Streltsi, members of a special troop founded in his time by Ivan ‘the Terrible’, now opposed to those in power, are becoming angry about the condition of Russia (‘Podoydu, podoydu... pod Ivangorod’ – ‘I am moving… towards Vangorod’, CD 1, track 2). The boyar Shaklovity dictates to a scribe a letter to the Tsar of All the Russians in which he accuses Prince Khovansky of planning a coup d’état. The illiterate people get the scribe to read them a proclamation from the Tsar in which future banishments and death sentences are announced. When Prince Khovansky appears with 8
his followers, Shaklovity and the scribe flee. (‘Bolshoi idet’ – ‘The all-powerful one comes’, CD 1, 4). The prince incites the people against the Tsar. Khovansky’s son Andrey importunes Emma, a young German girl (‘Ostavte, pustite menya’ – ‘Let me be, let me go’, CD 1, 5). But Marfa, Andrey’s former beloved, protects her. Prince Khovansky makes demands on Emma for himself, and a quarrel ensues between father and son. Dosifey ends it and asks Marfa to take the girl with her (‘Stoy! Beznovatye!’ – ‘Stop! You are of the devil!’, CD 1, 7). Act Two In his palace Prince Golitsin is reading a love-letter from the Tsarevna to him (‘Svyet moy, bratets Vasenka’ – ‘My light, dear brother Vasenka’, CD 2, 1). He has Marfa in so as to learn the future from her (‘K vam, knyaze, rovno bi v zasadu popadayes’ – ‘One comes to you, prince, as into an ambush’, CD 2, 2). When the girl predicts to him the loss of his fortune, and banishment, he wants to have her drowned. Prince Khovansky appears and accuses Golitsin of betrayal: old Dosifey attempts once again to settle the quarrel (‘Knazya, smiri vas gnev’ – ‘Prince, moderate your anger’, CD 2, 4). Marfa arrives and tells of Golitsin’s attempt to have her murdered (‘Knaze, knaze! Nye veli kaznit, veli milovat!’ – ‘Prince! Prince! Do not order me to be punished, order pity!’, CD 2, 5). Shaklovity enters with the news that Prince Khovansky is to be indited for high treason. Act Three A procession of Old Believers moves through the Moscow suburb of Samoskarvechye, where the streltsi live (‘Pozramichom’ – ‘We have defeated them’, CD 2, 7). Marfa sits in front of Khovansky’s house and sings a song about love (‘Iskhodila mladyoshenka’ – ‘A young girl went out’, CD 2, 8); the zealot 9
Susanna takes her to task for it. Dosifey pacifies the two girls. When Susanna has gone, Marfa confesses to the old man her ‘impious’ love, as she calls it, for Andrey Khovansky; Dosifey comforts her (‘Ach ti, moya kasata, poterpi malenko’ – ‘Ah, my dear, have a little patience’, CD 2, 10). The boyar Shaklovity sees Russia sliding into catastrophe (‘Spit streletskoye gnezdo’ – ‘The nest of streltsi sleeps’, CD 2, 11); drunken streltsi call for the destruction of Moscow (‘Podnimasya molodtsi’ – ‘Up, up, you lads’, CD 2, 12). The scribe reports persecution of the streltsi by the Tsar’s cavalry (‘Bedya, bedya… ach, zleysaya’ – ‘Disaster! Ah! Dreadful disaster!’, CD 2, 13). Prince Khovansky must help and avenge the Tsar’s soldiers’ misdeeds. The prince orders the people, on the contrary, to keep calm, and withdraws into his house. Act 4 Tableau One In Prince Khovansky’s house, country girls are singing at their handiwork (‘Vozle retski, na luzotske notseval ya, molodets’ – ‘On the meadow by the stream a young lad was asleep’, CD 3, 1). Khovansky, warned by a confidant of Prince Golitsin of an assassination attempt, throws all caution to the wind. He has Persian dancers entertain him at his meal (Dance of the Persian Slaves, CD 3, 3). Shaklovity brings in a summons for Khovansky to appear before the Grand Council. In defiance of all warnings, the prince decides to obey the summons. But scarcely has he emerged from his house than he is murdered by myrmidons. Tableau Two Meanwhile Golitsin and other nobles are being deported. The people of Moscow comment on the procession of those exiled, who are escorted by armed men (‘Glyanko! Vezut kak est!’ – ‘Look! They’re bringing him!’, CD 3, 5). Marfa tells Dosifey that the Imperial Guard has abandoned the Old Believers (‘Sversiloya rezenye sudby’ – ‘Implacable fate’, CD 3, 6). Andrey Khovansky appears, looking for Emma. He accuses 10
Marfa of hiding the girl from him and threatens to denounce her as a witch. When, however, the bells of the cathedral announce an act of punishment by the Tsar, he tearfully begs Marfa for protection (‘Ah, ti zdes, zlodeyka!’ – ‘Ah, here you are, evildoer’, CD 3, 7, and ‘Gospodi, boze moy! Vze pogiblo’ – ‘O Lord, O God! This is the end!’, CD 3, 8). Both run away. The wives of the streltsi urge the Tsar to punish the streltsi, who sorrowfully submit. But the ruler’s bodyguard enters and announces an amnesty. Act Five In a wood near Moscow the Old Believers have found refuge. Their cause seems lost: Dosifey appeals to them to die for their faith (‘Zdes, na etom meste svatye’ – ‘Here in this holy place’, CD 3, 9 , and ‘Bratiya!’ – ‘Brethren!’, CD 3, 10). All, Andrey and Marfa too, mount a gigantic funeral pyre and die (‘Gospodi slavi, gryadi vo slavu tvoyu!’ – ‘Praise to thee, O God: we enter into thy glory!’, CD 3, 13). The soldiers of the Tsar’s bodyguards arrive too late with their amnesty. Gerhard Persché Translation: Lionel Salter
Recording: 1978, Bulgaria Concert Hall Producer: Balkanton, Sofia Cover image – Vasilij Ivanovic Surikov (1848–1916): The Morning of the Execution of the Streltsy in 1698 (1881, oil on canvas) Photo: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow/The Bridgeman Art Library P 1996 CAPRICCIO, a division of Delta Music GmbH C 2011 Brilliant Classics
11
12