Darkness in the East

Think of the Bolshoi Opera and you probably think of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. But over the last two seasons, Boris has in a sense become the Metropolitan Opera’s signature piece as well. Other operas (e.g., anything starring Joan Sutherland or Beverly Sills) have caused more excitement among the scalpers, but Boris has been consistently popular regardless of who was singing. And that is Martti Talvela as Boris whose menacing picture, sceptre poised to bludgeon the recalcitrant donor, adorns the Met’s fundraising advertisements.

Boris is grand opera, and grandeur is what the Met does best: a cast of hundreds, filling the huge stage; Ming Cho Lee’s massive sets, which look as solid as the real thing; and, in the Polish scene, three life-size, working fountains. The fountains were the last straw for one New York critic, who, in reaction, ricocheted over to the suggestion that grand-opera pretensions should be discarded altogether in these days of tight money. Boris, he said, would actually work better for a modern audience on a bare cyclorama.

About the Author

Linda Bridges

Ms. Bridges is the former editor-at-large of National Review.

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Think of the Bolshoi Opera and you probably think of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. But over the last two seasons, Boris has in a sense become the Metropolitan Opera’s signature piece as well. Other operas (e.g., anything starring Joan Sutherland or Beverly Sills) have caused more excitement among the scalpers, but Boris has been consistently popular regardless of who was singing. And that is Martti Talvela as Boris whose menacing picture, sceptre poised to bludgeon the recalcitrant donor, adorns the Met’s fundraising advertisements.

Boris is grand opera, and grandeur is what the Met does best: a cast of hundreds, filling the huge stage; Ming Cho Lee’s massive sets, which look as solid as the real thing; and, in the Polish scene, three life-size, working fountains. The fountains were the last straw for one New York critic, who, in reaction, ricocheted over to the suggestion that grand-opera pretensions should be discarded altogether in these days of tight money. Boris, he said, would actually work better for a modern audience on a bare cyclorama.