It is Alejo Pérez's third collaboration with director Calixto Bieito at the theatre in recent seasons and the last work in the cycle of three Russian operas, which began with Prokofiev's War and Peace and continued with Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk - Khovanshchina can be seen at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in five performances in March and April.
Mussorgsky left the work unfinished when he died in 1881. It was premiered in a version completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Igor Stravinsky later re-orchestrated the finale and Shostakovich revised the entire opera.
In addition to the chorus, Calixto Bieito's production centres on the opera's most important female character, Marfa, played by the American mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis. Back at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Dmitri Ulyanov plays Prince Ivan Khovansky. The baritone Vladislav Sulimsky, who impressed as Macbeth at the Salzburg Festival in August 2023, will take on the role of the boyar Chaklovity.
Grand Théâtre de Genève
