BORIS GODOUNOV / PROGRAMME / Bastille / Juin 2018

Description

When in 1824 Pushkin undertook with Boris Godunov the elaboration of his first historical drama, he was only too aware of the colossus he was tackling. It was armed with a reading of Shakespeare that he took on the dazzling reign of the Tsar of all the Russias (1598-1605).
In fact, there is some Macbeth in this political fable, where Boris sees the ghost of the child he had murdered to conquer the throne resurface in the form of an imposter. Using this epic poem, Mussorgsky composes a reflection on the loneliness of power, a popular drama whose true protagonist is the Russian people, with their eternal suffering.
Pushkin had already asked himself: "What is a soul? A melody, perhaps..." Ivo Van Hove, accustomed to great political frescoes, signs his first staging for the Paris Opera.