Mussorgsky's BORIS GODOUNOV

Teatro Lirico D'Europa- Winter 2003 USA tour

TEATRO LIRICO CREATES A STIRRING BORIS!

"Last night's performance of Mussorgsky's BORIS GODOUNOV represented the finest performance that Teatro Lirico D'Europa has yet given us. No opera lover should miss the repeat performance tonight by the feisty touring company. The company engaged four artists from Moscow's Bolshoi Theater. All four were excellent. The chorus flooded the hall with thrilling, bright, Slavic tone that buzzed in the ears and the orchestra did yeomen work under the direction of the very gifted conductor Metodi Matakiev. He led with tremendous sweep, passion, and attention to detail. This BORIS stirred the soul, as it must and always does."
BOSTON GLOBE - Richard Dyer - March 2003
(Performance at Jordan Hall, Boston, MA)

***

GODOUNOV PROVIDES STRONG SEASON FINISH!

"There is no doubting this company's authority in Russian music. The singing was uniformly strong. Giorgio Lalov hired basses, Vyacheslav Pochapsky and Alexander Kisselev, both singers with the legendary Bolshoi, to fill the principal roles of Boris and Pimen. Both were splendiferous. Pochapsky is endowed with a clear and stenorian instrument. Kisselev sang with warmth, elegance and flexibility. Lev Kuznetsov as Dimitri and Anatoly Zaychenko as Shuisky both sang with thrust and intense lyricism. Teatro's resplendent chorus deserves special mention for its intensely emotional performance and conductor Metodi Matakiev led the orchestra with energy and polish."
DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE - John Pitcher - March 2003
(Performance at Eastman Theater, Rochester, NY)

***

SINGING INTO SPRING - Teatro Lirico's BORIS GODOUNOV

"The touring company that has won Boston's hearts with its rough-and - ready productions of Verdi and Puccini brought BORIS for 2 nights. I hope we don't have to wait another quarter of a century for another performance so powerful. What a sizzling performance this was! Metodi Matakiev gave it a surging sweep, building tremendous vocal climaxes, yet holding back for scenes of intimacy or comedy. He gave the church music an eerie sense of ancient otherworldliness. He let the folk songs lilt like folk songs, the dances skip like dances. The mazurkas and the polonaise had a different character from the music evoking the Russian spirit. The orchestra gave him what he wanted and the chorus gave him even more. The walls vibrated with their overwhelming sound and vivid characterizations. These singers performing together almost every night have developed a rare sense of ensemble. Most remarkable were the two Bolshoi basses alternating as Boris and Pimen. Huge Vyacheslav Pochapsky had a voice that seemed to emanate from the bottom of a well-dark, resonant, mysteriously deep, and Russian to the core. His wide, expressive mouth seemed to taste every syllable. It surely was a performance in the tradition of the legendary Russian Bass Feodor Chaliapin. Alexander Kisselev's Pimen had a more elegant vocal technique-I wanted to hear him in Verdi. I felt an almost mystical presence. Teatro Lirico brought us not just one but two sensational singers in one of the greatest of all operatic roles and a riveting experience of one of the greatest of all operas."
THE BOSTON PHOENIX - Lloyd Schwartz - March 2003
(Performance at Jordan Hall, Boston, MA)

***

A Welcome View of a Rare BORIS

"The character of Boris Godounov is one of the most complex drawn in all of opera. The production mounted by Teatro Lirico D'Europa addressed this quality with considerable understanding. Kudos to this company for presenting it. A good chunk of the credit for the show's success goes to the Boris, Alexander Kisselev, who not only possessed a stern, direct voice, but, with his Goya - esque, elongated face, looked quite imposing as well. The rest of the cast was also solid, in particular the role of Dimitri, sung stylishly and ardently by Lev Kuznetsov. Teatro Lirico is a serious minded Bulgarian company that manages well with the myriad problems that can beset opera on tour. The mostly 2 dimensional designs for this production were effective enough and sometimes quite attractive, opera can survive without hoopla if the music and dramatic action work as well as they did here. The orchestra responded appropriately to Mussorgsky's foreboding, almost Spartan sound world; conductor Metodi Matakiev navigated it with authority. BORIS GODOUNOV can be overwhelming in its inner emotional intensity and its practically relentless darkness. Surely a good deal of that effect was achieved in this generally admirable production."

NEW YORK NEWS DAY - Daniel Schlossberg - March 2003 (Performance at the Tilles Center, Long Island University)