Calixto Bieito completes his Russian opera cycle at the Grand Théâtre de Genève with a new production of Modest Mussorgsky’s Khovantchina, a grand choral opera about brutal power struggles in 17th-century Russia. The work explores the conflict between three socio-political forces: the Westernizing Prince Golitsin, the conservative boyars led by Prince Ivan Khovansky, and the Old Believers, a sectarian religious group. The opera, originally unfinished due to Mussorgsky’s early death, is presented here in Dmitri Shostakovich’s orchestration, with a finale by Igor Stravinsky, blending Russian tradition with forward-looking musical elements.
Bieito’s production, with Alejo Pérez conducting, places a strong focus on the central female character, Marfa, played by mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis. The cast includes Dmitri Ulyanov as Prince Ivan Khovansky and Vladislav Sulimsky as Boyar Shaklovity, with the Grand Théâtre’s Chorus and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. The show runs for approximately 4 hours and 15 minutes, with two intermissions.
In Russian, with French and English subtitles.
