This coming Saturday, 16 September, Kent Nagano will open the 2023/24 season of the Hamburg State Opera with Modest P. Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov in a new production by Frank Castorf.
“The years between the death of Ivan the Terrible and the ascension of the Romanov family to the throne are known in Russia as the “Time of Troubles”. During this time, Boris Godunov strives to gain power with an iron determination. However, the ghosts of the past catch up with him and he dies a madman, abandoned and betrayed by everyone. In the meantime, the country sinks ever deeper into corruption, putsches and intrigue. A new “Time of Troubles” dawned during Modest Mussorgsky’s lifetime: the old order faltered and could not survive, everyone felt it. During a period of political upheaval and shaken by dramatic developments in his private life, Mussorgsky created a work about the arrogance of power and the eroticism of betrayal – as contradictory and fascinating as his personality itself.”
More information can be found here.
16. September Hamburg, Staatsoper
Philharmonic State Orchestra Premiere
Mussorgski: Boris Godunov
Director: Frank Castorf
Set: Aleksandar Denić
Costumes: Adriana Braga Peretzki
Lighting: Rainer Casper
Video: Andreas Deinert, Severin Renke, Jens Crull, Maryvonne Riedelsheimer
Dramaturgy: Patric Seibert
Further performances: 20., 23., 26., 28. Sep, 4., 7. Okt
