Riccardo Chailly conducts Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov

Few works changed the landscape of Russian opera as decisively as Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, and the stark 1869 version heard here preserves the rawness of his original conception — a drama in which personal guilt and national unrest are inseparably entwined. At Teatro alla Scala, Riccardo Chailly conducts Kasper Holten’s production, created with designer Es Devlin, whose sweeping projections and map-like imagery evoke a world in which the weight of history is never far from view. Ildar Abdrazakov leads the cast as the tormented tsar, joined by Ain Anger as Pimen and Dmitry Golovnin as Grigoriy, with La Scala's chorus and orchestra giving full scope to Mussorgsky’s vast dramatic canvas.