BEMF Opera | 2005 Centerpiece Opera
Mattheson’s Boris Goudenow
June 14, 16, 18, & 19, 2005
Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College, Boston, MA
June 24 & 25, 2005
Tanglewood Summer Music Festival, Lenox, MA
The timeless tale of Russian Czar Boris Goudenow is now told through the masterful pen of Johann Mathheson (1681–1764), one of Northern Europe’s leading and most influential composers and mentor to the young George Frideric Handel. Composed in 1710, Mattheson’s Boris Goudenow was not performed during the composer’s lifetime. The reason it was not staged can now only be conjectured, but the score is clearly one of the crowning achievements of Mattheson’s compositional career and of the entire Hamburg opera. Almost three hundred years later, this remarkable rediscovered drama will be presented—fully-staged—for the very first time as can only be accomplished by the superb directors and musicians of the Boston Early Music Festival.
The famous story of Boris’s ascension to the Russian throne is brought to life in this “new” re-telling amidst plots of political intrigue, intense love triangles, and the emotions of the entire Russian people. A stunning spectacle of sight and sound, Mattheson’s Boris Goudenow features an all-star cast of internationally-acclaimed singers and instrumentalists and contains all of the elements for which BEMF operas have become renowned—a rich and beautiful score, memorable arias, small ensemble and large choral pieces, spectacular dances, even a children’s troupe of singers and dancers—all supported by our trademark world-class and sumptuous Baroque orchestra.
Directors
Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, Musical Directors
Lucy Graham and Nils Niemann, Stage Co-Directors
David Cockayne, Set Designer
Anna Watkins, Costume Designer and Supervisor
Lenore Doxsee, Lighting Designer
Lucy Graham, Choreographer
Kathleen Fay, Executive Producer
Abbie H. Katz, Associate Producer
Artists
Cast
Vadim Kravets, Boris Goudenow
Ellen Hargis, Irina
Nell Snaidas, Olga
Catherine Webster, Axiana
Olivier Laquerre, Theodorus Ivanowitz
Colin Balzer, Gavust
Julian Podger, Josennah
William Hite, Bodga
Marek Rzepka, Fedro
Aaron Sheehan, Ivan
Chorus
Michela Macfarlane, Jayne Tankersley, Teresa Wakim & Brenna J. Wells, soprano; Michael Barrett, Thomas A. Gregg, William D. Hudson, Jason McStoots & Mark Sprinkle, tenor; Alexander Prokhorov, Sumner Thompson & Douglas Williams, bass
Dancers
Melinda Sullivan, Assistant Choreographer & Ballet Mistress
Tina Cassidy, Carlos Fittante, Tim Kaspar, Kaj Sylegård & Linda J. Tomko
Members of PALS Children’s Chorus
Johanna Hill Simpson, director
Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra
Robert Mealy, concertmaster
Andrey Reshetin, Milos Valent, Peter Spissky Heidi Powell, Maria Krestinskaya, Julie Andrijeski, Cynthia Roberts & Dagmar Valentová, violin; Patrick Jordan, David Douglass & Laura Jeppesen, viola; Phoebe Carrai, Sarah Frieberg, Brent Wissick & Alice Robbins, violoncello; Jay Elfenbein, violone; Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, lute; Maxine Eilander, harp; Erin Headley, viola da gamba; Kristian Bezuidenhout & Jörg Jacobi, harpsichord; Washington McClain, Geoffrey Burgess & Kathryn Montoya, oboe & recorder; Marilyn Boenau & Mathieu Lussier, bassoon; John Thiessen & Alexander Bonus, trumpet; Todd Manley, percussion