Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina

Few Russian operas feel as urgent as Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina – a drama of political intrigue and religious fanaticism in the reign of Peter the Great which continues to have powerful resonances in today’s very different (but equally troubled) political climate. Stein Winge’s bold modern updating lays those parallels bare, using Shostakovich’s completion of Mussorgsky’s unfinished score to create an unmistakably 22st-century drama. Critically praised at its opening in 2007, this 2011 revival from Barcelona benefits from the conducting of Michael Boder, plus a Russian-speaking cast and the impassioned and strikingly idiomatic singing of the Liceu chorus.