Austria Osterfestspiele Salzburg 2025 – Mussorgsky, Khovanshchina: Soloists, Slovak Philharmonic Choir, Bachchor Salzburg, Salzburger Festspiele and Theater Kinderchor, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor). Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg, 12.4.2025. (AL-L)
Khovanshchina, Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera, has been accomplished and reorchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, Stravinsky, and for this efficiency, by Gerard McBurney, musicologist and brother of the director. As with Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, one by no means hears the identical work twice. In comparison with a 1994 Paris manufacturing by the Kirov, Streshnev’s position is now given to a male soprano, and notably, the opera doesn’t conclude with the ‘Outdated Believers’ Refrain’ however with a considerably prolonged duet between Marfa and Prince Andrei.
These additions, although attention-grabbing, don’t essentially improve the drama. Nobody is aware of how Mussorgsky would have accomplished his opera, however whereas Boris Godunov stands as a compact and natural work, Khovanshchina stays a patchwork — albeit set to sensible music—depicting crowd scenes, energy struggles, a fortune-teller’s prophecies, declarations of want relatively than love and, as in lots of operas, the demise of just about all its protagonists.
One attribute of Simon McBurney’s idea (it’s a co-production with New York’s Metropolitan Opera) is exactly that he doesn’t try and impose continuity the place the work lacks it. The primary half follows classical staging, however after intermission, there are undeniably lovely innovations. Projecting the motion onto a big display works successfully, and a very placing second happens when portions of soil fall onto the stage earlier than the Outdated Believers’ collective suicide.
The motion is modernised, evoking one thing nearer to American authoritarian tendencies. The Scribe varieties on a laptop computer however doesn’t publish his textual content for worry of reprisals. Among the many boyars seems a shaman paying homage to the one who participated within the invasion of the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. The English surtitles intentionally embrace modern references: Prince Ivan Khovansky is known as the ‘Boss’, and on the climactic level, the textual content actually reads ‘Make Russia Nice Once more’.
But within the following scene, whilst Prince Golitsyn’s advisors use cell phones, Marfa predicts the long run in clear water. This might symbolise that from the start, she is aware of all the pieces will finish badly. Nevertheless, after a lot modernism, this scene appears anachronistic, even contrived.
Musically, Esa-Pekka Salonen’s lean, rhythmic management secures impeccable precision from the Finnish Radio Orchestra, although at occasions the efficiency prioritises momentum over lyricism. The orchestra is considerably uneven with occasional passages changing into overly dense at full quantity and a few passages are certainly very loud and change into saturated. The strings of the Finnish Radio Orchestra lack color, whereas the wind devices soar in distinction and are a lot stronger. Seeing and listening to Khovanshchina within the Grosses Festspielhaus, one can not assist recalling the plush heat of Berlin or Vienna orchestra pits, making these moments really feel a contact medical.
In a manner, the manufacturing aligns effectively with Esa-Pekka Salonen’s path. The Finnish conductor’s readability of beat is spectacular, and the precision he obtains from his forces is impeccable. But this alert and rhythmic Mussorgsky often lacks lyricism and emotion, even a sure sense of focus. We witness a sequence of outstanding moments relatively than a coherent entire.
The omnipresent choruses supply broad dynamics. The voices are youthful and at occasions attain spectacular quantity. The forged is of very excessive calibre. The Scribe’s position completely fits character tenor Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke. Ain Anger portrays a deeply humanised Dosifey, discovering maybe essentially the most transferring phrasings. Thomas Atkins, because the rejected prince, discovers lovely lyrical accents. Vitalij Kowaljow – a outstanding Pimen in Munich final season and in Geneva in 2018 – impresses together with his vocal amplitude and commanding presence. As Marfa, Nadezhda Karyazina possesses appreciable sources, able to sustaining lengthy passages with nice line.
In the end, this is an interesting night with some highly effective moments. But one can not assist pondering that, despite the fact that what Mussorgsky left us is of a really excessive normal, the work he might need accomplished would have been much more homogeneous, dramatic, and convincing.
Antoine Lévy-Leboyer
Manufacturing:
Director and Choreography – Simon McBurney
Units – Rebecca Ringst
Costumes – Christina Cunningham
Lighting – Tom Visser
Video design – Will Duke
Co-Director and Motion – Leah Hausman
Sound design – Tuomas Norvio
Dramaturgy and Advisor – Gerard McBurney, Hannah Whitley
Solid:
Prince Ivan Khovansky – Vitalij Kowaljow
Prince Andrei Khovansky – Thomas Atkins
Prince Vasily Golitsin – Matthew White
Shaklovity – Daniel Okulitch
Dosifey – Ain Anger
Marfa – Nadezhda Karyazina
Clerk – Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke
Emma – Natalia Tanasii
Varsonofyev – Rupert Grössinger
Susanna – Allison Cook dinner
Kuzka – Theo Lebow
Streshnev – Daniel Fussek
