Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" at The Met

To understand Modest Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov," it is helpful to have an understanding of Russian history.

It more or less begins with Ivan IV, or "Ivan the Terrible," who reigned from 1533-1584. Ivan had a number of children, but only one legitimate heir to the Tsardom, Fyodor I. Fyodor I, however, is thought to have been mentally retarded at birth. This worked out well for Boris Godunov (and Mussorgsky's tale).

Why?

Because Fyodor I married Feodorovna Godunova, sister to Boris Godunov. And since Fyodor I didn't have the capacity to run the country, he left those details to his brother-in-law, Boris.

It gets better, if only slightly more confusing. Ivan IV married a number of women (eight, to be exact), but the Orthodox Church would only recognize the first three. Therefore, any children born from the remaining marriages were considered illegitimate. Of the living illegitimate children, one was a son: Dmitry Ivanovich.

Dmitry only lived to the age of 10 years old, but died of a stab wound. How he got that stab wound is, to this day, undetermined.

And now we have an opera plot full of murder, conspiracy and tyranny.

Since Fyodor I allowed Boris Godunov to run Russia, Godunov was understood as heir to the Tsardom. While Dmitry Ivanovich was indeed considered illegitimately born, the possibility existed that he would take over as Tsar upon Fyodor I's death (Fyodor had no sons). This led to much speculation that Godunov had something to do with the death of young Dmitry, but the forgiving public moved on rather quickly from that suspicion.

When Fyodor I died in 1598*, Godunov became Tsar.

The change in leadership was traumatic. Tsar Godunov wasn't as successful as he'd been while he was running the state for Fyodor I. In 1601, the Russian famine killed a third of the population. In 1604, a man pretending to be Dmitry Ivanovich tried to take over as Tsar but failed, until Godunov died in 1605.

When Godunov died, his son became Tsar (also named Fyodor, so now Fyodor II). The false Dmitry thought it might be a good time to try and become Tsar again, and his supporters killed Fyodor II and Fyodor II's mother.

Believe it or not, False Dmitry I (oh, and there were two other False Dmitrys) became Tsar. False Dmitry I gets murdered, followed quickly by the murders of the other two False Dmitrys in 1610 and 1611.

All of this to say Modest Mussorgsky had quite a colorful story from which to draw for his 1869 opera, "Boris Godunov." Mussorgsky revised the opera quite heavily in the early 1870s, and it is the revised version that The Metropolitan Opera performs Saturday. You can hear it live on Classical Minnesota Public Radio at 11:00 a.m. central (an early start this week), Saturday, March 12.

*Fyodor I's death also ended a seven-hundred-year reign of the Rurik Dynasty in Russia.

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