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Early Music America Spring 2005 27
MODEST MUSSORGSKY wasn’t the first composer to become
intrigued by the story of Boris Godu-nov, nor was his the first opera to depictthis grizzly episode of Russian intrigueand revolution. One hundred and sixty-four years before Mussorgsky, in 1710,an erudite performer, composer, andmusical theorist named Johann Matthe-son (1681-1764) set the same story tomusic for a performance at the Gänse-markt Oper in Hamburg. But Matthe-son’s Boris never took his first bow.Overspent finances, political wranglings,and casting difficulties lowered the cur-tain on the composer’s sixth operabefore the audience even got to hear theoverture. And Mattheson, hearing thecall to a sacred mission, moved on toHamburg’s cathedral, fulfilling his con-tract there by finishing more than 25oratorios and passions.
Patrons of this year’s Boston EarlyMusic Festival (June 13-19) will hearMattheson’s overture and more. TheFestival will make history by presenting,in its world premiere, a fully-staged BorisGoudenow at the Cutler Majestic Theatrewith a cast that includes Russian bassVadim Kravets in the title role, EllenHargis as Boris’s sister Irina, and KarinaGauvin as Princess Olga.
BEMF’s artistic co-directors, PaulO’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, have hadGerman opera running through theirheads since the late 1990s. The center-piece production at the 2003 Festivalwas Ariadne by Johann Georg Conradi,who was director of the HamburgOpera for three years. The devastationHamburg suffered in 1943 buried mostof Conradi’s and Mattheson’s music,along with everyone else’s. But vigilancesaved the scores of Conradi’s Ariadneand Mattheson’s Boris Goudenow. Ariadne
ended up at the Library of Congress,and Boris Goudenow resurfaced in Eriwan,Armenia. The theme of the 2005 Festi-val is East Meets West: Germany, Russia andthe Baltic States, and a Russian story thatinspired a German opera that eventuallyturned up in 20th-century Armeniaencompasses that theme pretty well.
Mattheson’s operatic styleUnlike Mattheson’s Boris, Ariadne was
successfully staged during its time – verysuccessfully, in fact. Repeat perform-ances, even after Conradi left Hamburg,kept it in the repertoire for years. Oneof Ariadne’s greatest fans was Matthe-son, who praised Conradi’s melodic gifts
and modeled his own style on Conradi’stuneful abilities – music that was Ger-man in concept and execution. His com-positions and his dozen musical treatiseswere aimed at making a lasting contribu-tion to German culture in the Baroqueand pre-Classical eras.
Most of Mattheson’s peers wereenamored of Italian opera seria, with itshighly florid passages sung by Italiandivas imported to Hamburg. Stories ofbickering Italian sopranos flavor anec-dotes of the day. An impresario had tocajole, humor, or bribe the singers to getthe performances he wanted. Matthe-son, however, cared little for such per-formers, who would amaze audienceswith involved roulades and cascades ofnotes, collect their fees, and take thenext coach back to Italy.
Mattheson’s music is more approach-able. His melodies are smoother, lessangular, and certainly more singablethan those by his Italianate colleagues.
“The music in Boris Goudenow isextremely good,” asserts O’Dette. “It isvaried, colorful, dramatic, tuneful, inven-tive, harmonically daring, virtuosic, andtouching. It is in the 17th-century tradi-tion of varied aria forms, some da capo,some strophic, and some through-com-posed. [Mattheson] includes numerousduets, trios, quartets, choruses, anddances, where the typical 18th-centuryopera seria sets long da capo arias, whichdepict more about vocalism than thedramatic action.”
Also, Mattheson’s attention to textand meter made a lasting contribution toan indigenous German opera.
“Mattheson was an incredible all-around talent: a singer, director, harpsi-chordist, composer, and writer of bothpoetry and prose. In fact, he wrote theBoris libretto himself,” explains Stubbs.
Boris in BostonBy Gary Freeman
The Boston Early Music Festival makes history by presenting the world-premiere of a 17th-century opera
28 Spring 2005 Early Music America
Mattheson and HandelTruly, Mattheson’s guide was dra-
matic action. He claimed, as modestly aspossible, that it was his expertise indrama that influenced his good friendGeorge Frideric Handel. Mattheson waswriting at the same time as Handel andfor the same audiences. Certainly, thereare similarities in their music, eventhough Handel leaned much more toItalian musical models and librettos.
Their mutual careers led them to mutualjob applications and mutual perform-ances. Mattheson, at a very early age,was singing on the operatic stage. Evenas late as age 15, he was singing sopranoroles. When his voice changed, hesought out tenor roles. He sang roles inhis own operas and those of his col-league Handel, while Handel conductedfrom the keyboard.
Early in their relationship, they trav-eled to Lübeck together to apply for theposition of organist at the Marienkirche,which was left vacant by Buxtehude.Though both were offered the position,as was J.S. Bach, neither accepted; per-haps the deciding factor was the stipula-tion that the winner marry Buxtehude’sdaughter. No historian talks of anyone
running with frightfrom the daughter’spresence, but theyare also silent abouther candidacy forthe position of MissLübeck.
Probably Matthe-son’s most memo-rable performancebegan on the stagebut ended in the
field of honor. At 23, one year aftermeeting Handel, Mattheson cast himselfin the role of Anthony in his own operaCleopatra. Handel, a brilliant improvisereven at 19, conducted at the keyboard,filling in the harmonies and spicing upMattheson’s music with extemporaneouskeyboard feats. At Anthony’s death,Mattheson was to take up the grand roleof maestro, but when he went into theorchestra pit to replace Handel at thekeyboard, Handel wouldn’t budge.Whether it was Mattheson’s jealousy ofHandel’s keyboard skill or Handel’s jeal-ousy of Mattheson’s voice and actingthat armored their resentments, neitherwas willing to back down. Cleopatra cameto a halt, and the audience, realizing thatreality was more exciting than historicalfiction, followed the two hotheads tothe dueling field, where the metal buttonon Handel’s waistcoat deflected Matthe-son’s blade. Both lived and forgaveenough to work many more yearstogether.
The London success of Handel’s firstoperatic masterpiece, Rinaldo, followedMattheson’s disappointment with BorisGoudenow by a year. After that, few com-posers entertained hopes of matchingHandel’s popularity, and this may havebeen a reason Mattheson abandonedhopes of production and moved to thecathedral to cultivate sacred music.
Creation and re-creationThe fact that Boris remains un-
touched makes the piece even more fas-cinating to Boston Early Music Festivalproducers. Lucy Graham and Nils Nie-mann, stage co-directors, have a formi-dable task. They are not re-creating apopular Baroque opera; instead, they areactually creating a Baroque opera that wasnever staged.
Graham, who is also the choreogra-pher of the production, sees her task asa musical and dramatic challenge. “Wehave seen designs from all the other rel-evant operas. [Generally] there are veryfew illustrations of scenery, but in thelibretti there are often prints of just onescene design. This is what we used as astarting point for our inspiration.”Extrapolating a whole opera from a sin-gle set is daunting. Mattheson, also aprolific writer on the Baroque musical
Boris in Boston
The BEMF opera production team:clockwise from top: Stephen Stubbs, Paul O’Dette, Kathleen Fay, David Cockayne, Lucy Graham, Nils Niemann,and Anna Watkins
Early Music America Spring 2005 29
world, didn’t concentrate on opera pro-ductions in his treatises, so there was lit-tle help there for set designer DavidCockayne. Inspiration for scenery, cos-tumes, and stage direction had to comefrom elsewhere.
“We want to give the production aNorth German accent,” Graham says.“We want to stress the action as beingclose to the rhythms and rhyme struc-ture of the language.” Hence, Grahamand Niemann are focusing on theaspects of German opera that Matthe-son felt led to an indigenous Germanicopera, one infused with a true Germanspirit.
One aspect of Boris Goudenow thatsets it apart from its opera seria sisters isthe absence of magical beings. “Thereare no celestial gods interfering in theplot,” Graham says. “The story is verymuch earth-bound and based on eventsthat occurred in late 16th-century Mus-covy, which makes it very different fromthe classically based plots of previousoperas mounted by Boston Early MusicFestival” (and the Gänsemarkt Oper inHamburg, for that matter). Boris has nodivine hand that descends to dispensejustice or friendly god who dismountsfrom a suspended swing to reinstate thepenitent. For justice, Mattheson’s Borisdepends on the Russian people’s good-ness and their acknowledgement ofBoris Godunov as a political savior. Thetale spins in a different direction duringthe Romantic Period, when Mussorg-sky’s Boris is depicted as a connivingautocrat who seeks self-glorification butis vindicated in the end by death and apromising offspring.
In place of the colorful denouementfeaturing the gods’ intervention thatoccurs in many Baroque operas, Boris’sproducers sought the excitement oflocal color. “We draw our inspirationfrom the deep, rich, and exotic colorsprevalent in the Russian Court at thattime,” Graham explains. Certainly muchof the vibrancy comes from the cos-tumes. Graham, who also teamed upwith costume designer and supervisorAnna Watkins in the production of Ari-adne, discloses the difficulties: “Nosource of Russian costume has so farcome to light from these operas, but wehave one Polish illustration, which gives
a hint of foreign exotic costumeadapted for opera. We have also lookedto Hamburg designer Johann OswaldHarms [1643-1708] for guidance.” Inaddition, Graham consulted the worksof Adam Olearius, a 17th-century trav-eler who made multiple visits to Russiaafter Boris Godunov’s reign as czar(1598-1605) and before the creation ofMattheson’s opera in 1710.
Other colorful aspects of Matthe-son’s music come from its folk charac-
ter, a feature of opera in Hamburg sinceits inception. Mattheson’s idol was Rein-hard Keiser, probably the earliest andbest-known advocate of opera inGerman.
“The [Italian] standardization ofrecitative/da capo aria ad infinitum is notto be found in Boris,” explains Stubbs.“First of all, ensembles (duets, trios,quartets, and choruses) are a prominentingredient. Secondly, there are traces ofGerman strophic song and Frenchdance, including a superb closingchaconne.”
Stubbs cites the amazing four-partcanon in the first scene of Act Two,where four of the characters sing oftheir fervent hopes for the fatherland:Irina, wife of the dead czar and Boris’ssister, wants to retire to a monastery;Fedro, a military retainer, sings of hislove for Irina; Ivan, who with Fedro wasgiven the opportunity of succeeding thedead czar, refuses to be elevated; andBoris, mayor of Moscow, modestlyexplains that he picked up the scepter toget it off the floor, where the dying czarhad just dropped it. The singing of suchdivergent sentiments in ensemble wasrare in the Baroque. For importantinstances, one has to advance severalgenerations to Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaroor Beethoven’s Fidelio.
Considering these examples of variedand innovative musical forms, one isn’tsurprised to learn that Matthesonadmired originality and invention. Hewrites about being awed by the cleverperformance of Nicolaus Bruhns, apupil of Buxtehude, who entertained hisaudience by playing a trio sonata byhimself – two parts on a single violinand the bass on the organ pedals!
French influence plays a large part inBoris. Mattheson, who was familiar withthe French contribution to the keyboardsuite, published his own book of Piècesde Clavecin four years after abandoningBoris. Similar dance suites, instrumentallyconceived, made an early appearance in
One aspect of BorisGoudenow that sets it apartfrom its opera seria sisters is
the absence of magicalbeings. “There are no celestialgods interfering in the plot,”
Lucy Graham says.
A stage setting from the BEMF premiere of Johann Mattheson’s Boris Goudenow.
Continued on page 48
30 Spring 2005 Early Music America
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Boris in Bostonvarious guises in his operas. Along withthe aforementioned chaconne, a passepied, aminuet for children celebrating Boris’sagreement to become czar, and a sungsarabande accompanied by pizzicatostrings and flutes are Mattheson’sdevices for weaving an internationaltexture.
O’Dette explains that the lonely min-uet for the kids would probably havefallen short of Mattheson’s intentionshad Boris Goudenow ever made its debut.So, says O’Dette, “In keeping with thetradition of the divertissement in Frenchopera, which was the model for Ham-burg operas of the time, we have addeddances for the old men and then foreverybody together. We took thesedances from Mattheson’s other operas.”
Around the centerpieceMattheson’s push away from strict
Italian models influences many of hisother works. While his music may belargely unknown, patrons of this year’sBoston Early Music Festival will have achance to hear his many sides. O’Dettebelieves that Mattheson is an importantfigure in the Baroque, in compositionand in aesthetics, and has scheduledother pieces by him during the week: aMagnificat, a serenata, a cantata, and avirtuoso keyboard sonata.
According to Kathleen Fay, executiveproducer of the Festival, the program isfilled with notable concerts that radiatefrom its opera centerpiece. Attendees in2003 will remember the ovations honor-ing violinist Giuliano Carmignola,recorder player Matthias Maute, andkeyboardist Kristian Bezuidenhout.They’ll all return this season in featuredperformances with the BEMF operaorchestra. Bezuidenhout will also per-form a solo recital on June 16. Sequen-tia returns this season, as does TheKing’s Noyse, reconfigured with somenew personnel and performing on thelast day of the festival.
Boston Camerata, celebrating its50th anniversary as one of the mostfamiliar and well-recorded early music
Continued from page 29
Early Music America Spring 2005 49
FOUNDED 1915
Early MusicInstitute at
Longy
June 18–25, 2005
GUILLAUME DU FAY1397–1474
A performance seminar
on the rich variety of
15th-century vocal music
of French composer,
Guillaume Du Fay, and
the instrumental music
derived from and
contemporary to
his works.
FA CULTYLaurie Monahan, voice & directorCristi Catt, voice & co-coordinatorDaniela Tosic, voice & co-coordinatorMargriet Tindemans, vielleShira Kammen, vielle & harpDana Maiben, vielleGrant Herreid, plectrum lute,
voice & early windsDan Stillman, shaum & sackbutMack Ramsey, sackbut & slide trumpetAlejandro Planchart, Du Fay scholar &choral conductor
Tapestry & Medieval Strings, ensembles-in-residence
FACULTYRichard Campbell, gamba
Phoebe Carrai, cello & co-directorMaxine Eilander, harp
Jeffrey Gall, voiceArthur Haas, keyboard
Matthew Jennejohn, oboePaul Leenhouts, recorder & director
Riccardo Manasi, violinKen Pierce, dance
Stephen Stubbs, luteStephen Schultz, flute
2 0 0 5
SUMMER INST I TUTES
L O N G Y S C H O O L O F M U S I C
InternationalBaroqueInstitute atLongy
July 16–25, 2005
PASSIONS OF THE SOULA performance seminar on
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INFORMATIONFor more information please contact:
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www.longy.edu
groups, will augment its reprise ofCarmina Burana with a post-concert per-formance featuring some of the Camer-ata’s illustrious alumni.
In keeping with the East Meets Westtheme, a number of North Americadebuts will be presented: violinistsAndrey Reshetin and Maria Krestin-skaya from Russia’s Catherine the GreatOrchestra, Ensemble William Byrd inmusic from 17th-century Denmark andSweden directed by Graham O’Reilly,and Solamente naturali in a program ofSlovakian gypsy music from 1730directed by Milosv Valent. New partici-pants also include gamba players JeromeHantai and Kaori Uemurau and theCamerata Trajectina, whose program(which opens the festival) offers sea-shanties, psalms, instrumental ditties,and love songs that might have providedmusical distraction during the tradingadventures of a Dutch ship in the timeof Peter the Great.
Boston’s own Blue Heron Renais-sance Choir, under the direction of vio-linist Scott Metcalf, will enjoy its debutwith the Festival proper. “Blue Heronhas performed as a concurrent event atseveral Festivals,” Fay says. “It’s part ofour wonderful outreach program that aconcurrent group can grow, develop,and become truly excellent enough to beawarded a part in the main festival.” Asanother example, Fay mentions Anony-mous 4, which began its musical life at aconcurrent event at BEMF.
Fay hints that the 2005 BEMF willfeature several surprises, including someadded energetic (and florid) perform-ances by the Festival’s expert players.In addition, the Boston Early MusicFestival’s recording of the Baroqueopera showpiece of its 2003 season,Conradi’s Ariadne, will be released byCPO records in time for this year’s Junefestival. “It marks a year’s collaborationof many forces,” Fay says.
Gary Freeman, an arts writer for the Commu-nity Newspaper Co., a chain of newspapers inthe Boston area, has a masters of music andmusic and literature from Boston University.
