Mussorgsky Boris Godunov: Christoff Veas CD

Questions of editions and orchestration aside, Modest Mussorgsky's penetrating, powerful and potent four-act Boris Godunov, arguably the greatest Russian opera of the 19th c., requires no less than a figure of towering stature to portray this late 16th - early 17th c. Russian Czar. This 1958 Covent Garden performance led by Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik, in his last year as the Royal Opera House music director, has such a figure in Boris Christoff, a bass of considerable vocal and acting talent. Josephine Veasey, Geraint Evans and Regina Resnik, among other cast members, prove no less formidable.

1. Now Then! Have You Turned to Idols? 2. Russian People All! 3. Glory to Thee, Lord on Earth! 4. Long Live Tsar Boris Fydorovich! 5. My Soul Is Sad 6. Just One More, the Final Story 7. The Very Same Dream! 8. You Wrote and Took No Rest 9. When Was He Murdered? 10. I Caught a Lovely Duck 11. Woman! Peace Be to Your House 12. Thus It Was at the Town of Kazan 13. However, Friend 14. Well, Fathers, How Are We Doing 15. I Can Read 16. Where Are You, Dearest? 17. What Is the Matter? 18. I Have Attained Supreme Power 19. Your Highness 20. Ah, Most Eloquent Traitor! 21. Ouf! I Suffocate! 22. By the Blue Waters of the Vistula 23. Enough! the Lovely Maiden Is Grateful 24. Ah, It Is You, My Father! 25. At Midnight, in the Garden 26. I Do Not Believe Your Vows 27. The Crafty Jesuit Has Caught Me 28. Dimitri! Tsarevich! Dimitri! 29. I Adore You, Marina 30. O Tsarevich, I Beg You 31. What, Is Mass Finished Already? 32. TRRR, TRRR! Iron Cap, Iron Cap 33. Ah-Ah... Boris! Oh, Boris! 34. Exalted Boyars! 35. It's a Pity Shuisky Is Not Here 36. I Have Summoned You, Boyars 37. A Meek Old Monk 38. Oh! I Suffocate! Give Me Kight! 39. The Bell! the Passing-Bell! 40. Bring Him Over Here! 41. We, Dimitri Ivanovich, By the Grace