Synopsis
Khovanshchina - English National Opera Guide 48
Published by John Calder Publications
Mussorgsky's last opera dramatizes the conspiracy of Prince Khovansky against Tsar Peter the Great, and the epic ends with the exile, murder and suicide of all the power groups of old Russia
When Musorgsky died in 1881, Khovanshchina was unfinished, and Rimsky-Korsakov completed it; Ravel and Stravinsky made another version for Diaghilev in 1911; in 1959 Shostakovich went back to the original and rediscovered a masterpiece
Caryl Emerson offers a provocative reading of Mussorgsky's achievement
Gerard McBurney relates the non-European inspiration in the score to Mussorgsky's conception of history, while Rosamund Bartlett describes the cultural impetus for his historical vision
REVIEWS
'Brilliantly produced and superb value' ~ Sunday Times
'All these will provide the new opera-goer with food for thought' ~ Daily Telegraph
'Wholehearted recommendation of this valuable new series' ~ TLS