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Boris Godunov and my ancestors
My personal stake in "Boris Godunov'
Steve Cohen
Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov returned to the Metropolitan Opera this week for two performances, including a broadcast on Saturday (March 12).
When I reviewed the Met's new production last fall, friends teased me about my seemingly excessive attention to the opera's historical completeness. They don't know the half of it! As the radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say, here's the rest of the story.
My father's first name was Sigismund— just like the king of Poland who was protagonist of the rebellion against Tsar Boris.
Dad was uncomfortable with that odd moniker, so he used his middle name of Charles. But he reverted to Sigismund when he opened an optical shop in Philadelphia in 1933: and Sigismund Opticians became a familiar entity to spectacle-wearers until it closed in 1989, after Dad died.
The name Sigismund was passed down for generations in my father's family since the 17th Century, honoring the king who may— I stress may— have been my ancestor. Ashkenazic Jews customarily name babies for dead ancestors rather than people outside the family. King Sigismund III, who reigned from 1587 to 1632, had several mistresses, at least one of whom was Jewish. Perhaps we're descended from that liaison.
A talent for painting
Sigismund was a talented painter and goldsmith; of his three paintings that survive, one was erroneously attributed to Tintoretto for centuries. My dad was seriously into painting. An inheritance, perhaps?
In any case, the real story is even more interesting than what's told in the opera.
Boris Godunov takes place shortly after the establishment of the Russian Empire by Ivan the Terrible, who ruled from 1547 to 1584. His nickname, in Russian, is "the Feared" rather than "the Terrible," but Ivan does seem to have been a terrible man. He beat his eldest son to death. Then he raped his second son's wife, who was the younger sister of the nobleman Boris Godunov. Some historians say that Boris Godunov poisoned Ivan for revenge.
'Accidental' death
Ivan was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Feodor, who was mentally impaired and relied on Boris to run the nation. A younger son of Ivan, named Dmitri, died mysteriously at the age of nine. An investigation, ordered by Godunov and carried out by Prince Vasiliy Shuisky, determined that the Tsarevich was playing with a knife, had an epileptic seizure and fell and died from an accidentally inflicted wound to the throat. Some people didn't believe this story and insisted that Boris killed the boy, who was in line to inherit the throne.
After Tsar Feodor died in 1598, the experienced Boris was elected his successor by a national assembly comprised of nobles, administrators and military officials. This is where Mussorgsky's opera begins.
Imposter's arrival
Early in Boris's five-year reign, terrible cold spells lasted through three summers and caused poor harvests, which led to famine. Boris's government distributed food and money to the poor in Moscow "“- call it a "bail out" or "stimulus" if you will— but that gesture prompted more refugees to flock to the capital and demonstrate against the government. Boris Godunov also faced foreign intrusion by armies from the combined kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, ruled by King Sigismund.
In 1603 a young man calling himself Dmitri claimed to be the son of Ivan the Terrible and the rightful heir to the Russian throne. He gathered support from discontented masses and from Sigismund. This imposter claimed that his mother had hid him in various Russian monasteries, where he bided his time until he could rise up to overthrow Godunov.
Dmitri aided his cause by converting to Roman Catholicism and becoming engaged to Marina Mniszech, the 17-year-old daughter of a prominent Polish noble family. Rangoni, in the opera, sings that he is "only a priest." In fact, he was the papal nuncio to Poland and the architect of a plan to convert Russia to a Roman Catholic country.
Sex for survival
In 1605 Boris died of unknown causes, possibly a stroke. This is where the opera ends. In Boris's last words before the bells begin their death-knoll, he prays that his daughter remains innocent and free from temptation. Her real-life fate was far from innocent.
The "False Dmitri" and his supporters then murdered Boris's 16-year-old son, Feodor II, and his mother, and Dmitri became tsar. Boris's other child, the 23-year-old Xenia, was allowed to live. According to two historians, she repaid Dmitri for this favor by agreeing to sleep with him. One historian adds the detail that Dmitri "kept her in his palace as a concubine" for five months. When Dmitri's fiancée Marina came to join him in Moscow, he sent Xenia away to a convent.
When Marina arrived in Moscow for the wedding ceremony with a retinue of about 4,000 Poles, anti-Catholic and anti-Polish anger surged. Protesters stormed the Kremlin. Dmitri tried to escape by jumping out of a window but was shot dead, and Shuisky took power as Tsar Vasily IV.
Another imposter
Soon a new impostor, likewise calling himself Dmitri, came forward as the heir and tried to gain the throne. The Polish nobleman Jerzy Mniszech, the father of the first False Dmitri's bride Marina, arranged a so-called "reunion" between the second Dmitri and Marina, who miraculously recognized him as her husband Dmitri and moved in with him. This new Dmitri was supported by the same group of Polish nobles who had propped up the first False Dmitri, and they supplied him with funds and soldiers as he advanced on Moscow in the spring of 1608.
To fight this rebellion, Shuisky signed an alliance with Sweden. Understandably, King Sigismund of Poland felt threatened because Sweden was a rival of the Poles in the Baltic region. So Sigismund intervened and his army defeated Shuisky's army at the Battle of Klushino on the Fourth of July, 1610. A group of Russian nobles deposed Shuisky and recognized Sigismund's son Wladyslaw as the new tsar of Russia. The false Dmitri II was shot in the head, while Shuisky died in a Polish prison.
The first Romanovs
When the Polish king subsequently tried to convert Russia to Roman Catholicism, he provoked more anti-Catholic and anti-Polish sentiments within the nation. The Swedes allied themselves with the Russian Orthodox, in opposition to Poland and the Vatican, and supported a new false Dmitri— the third one. But indigenous Russians refused to accept him, and a new Russian government elected as tsar Michael Romanov, the 16-year-old son of the Russian Orthodox religious leader and grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible's first wife, Anastasia Romanova.
Tsar Michael had the false Dmitri III executed, the three-year-old son of the false Dmitri II hanged, and had Dmitri's wife (and the baby's mother) Marina strangled. Yes, the glamorous and conniving mezzo of the opera finally got her come-uppance.
The Romanov dynasty continued to rule Russia until the Communist revolution in 1917.
Granted, this plot is too sprawling to be contained in one opera. Maybe Victor Hugo could have pulled everything together dramatically in one encompassing novel. A Wagner-like cycle would be needed to give it musical life. At least, with this history in your mind, you should enjoy Boris Godunov more than ever at the Met or in its broadcast.
When I reviewed the Met's new production last fall, friends teased me about my seemingly excessive attention to the opera's historical completeness. They don't know the half of it! As the radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say, here's the rest of the story.
My father's first name was Sigismund— just like the king of Poland who was protagonist of the rebellion against Tsar Boris.
Dad was uncomfortable with that odd moniker, so he used his middle name of Charles. But he reverted to Sigismund when he opened an optical shop in Philadelphia in 1933: and Sigismund Opticians became a familiar entity to spectacle-wearers until it closed in 1989, after Dad died.
The name Sigismund was passed down for generations in my father's family since the 17th Century, honoring the king who may— I stress may— have been my ancestor. Ashkenazic Jews customarily name babies for dead ancestors rather than people outside the family. King Sigismund III, who reigned from 1587 to 1632, had several mistresses, at least one of whom was Jewish. Perhaps we're descended from that liaison.
A talent for painting
Sigismund was a talented painter and goldsmith; of his three paintings that survive, one was erroneously attributed to Tintoretto for centuries. My dad was seriously into painting. An inheritance, perhaps?
In any case, the real story is even more interesting than what's told in the opera.
Boris Godunov takes place shortly after the establishment of the Russian Empire by Ivan the Terrible, who ruled from 1547 to 1584. His nickname, in Russian, is "the Feared" rather than "the Terrible," but Ivan does seem to have been a terrible man. He beat his eldest son to death. Then he raped his second son's wife, who was the younger sister of the nobleman Boris Godunov. Some historians say that Boris Godunov poisoned Ivan for revenge.
'Accidental' death
Ivan was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Feodor, who was mentally impaired and relied on Boris to run the nation. A younger son of Ivan, named Dmitri, died mysteriously at the age of nine. An investigation, ordered by Godunov and carried out by Prince Vasiliy Shuisky, determined that the Tsarevich was playing with a knife, had an epileptic seizure and fell and died from an accidentally inflicted wound to the throat. Some people didn't believe this story and insisted that Boris killed the boy, who was in line to inherit the throne.
After Tsar Feodor died in 1598, the experienced Boris was elected his successor by a national assembly comprised of nobles, administrators and military officials. This is where Mussorgsky's opera begins.
Imposter's arrival
Early in Boris's five-year reign, terrible cold spells lasted through three summers and caused poor harvests, which led to famine. Boris's government distributed food and money to the poor in Moscow "“- call it a "bail out" or "stimulus" if you will— but that gesture prompted more refugees to flock to the capital and demonstrate against the government. Boris Godunov also faced foreign intrusion by armies from the combined kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, ruled by King Sigismund.
In 1603 a young man calling himself Dmitri claimed to be the son of Ivan the Terrible and the rightful heir to the Russian throne. He gathered support from discontented masses and from Sigismund. This imposter claimed that his mother had hid him in various Russian monasteries, where he bided his time until he could rise up to overthrow Godunov.
Dmitri aided his cause by converting to Roman Catholicism and becoming engaged to Marina Mniszech, the 17-year-old daughter of a prominent Polish noble family. Rangoni, in the opera, sings that he is "only a priest." In fact, he was the papal nuncio to Poland and the architect of a plan to convert Russia to a Roman Catholic country.
Sex for survival
In 1605 Boris died of unknown causes, possibly a stroke. This is where the opera ends. In Boris's last words before the bells begin their death-knoll, he prays that his daughter remains innocent and free from temptation. Her real-life fate was far from innocent.
The "False Dmitri" and his supporters then murdered Boris's 16-year-old son, Feodor II, and his mother, and Dmitri became tsar. Boris's other child, the 23-year-old Xenia, was allowed to live. According to two historians, she repaid Dmitri for this favor by agreeing to sleep with him. One historian adds the detail that Dmitri "kept her in his palace as a concubine" for five months. When Dmitri's fiancée Marina came to join him in Moscow, he sent Xenia away to a convent.
When Marina arrived in Moscow for the wedding ceremony with a retinue of about 4,000 Poles, anti-Catholic and anti-Polish anger surged. Protesters stormed the Kremlin. Dmitri tried to escape by jumping out of a window but was shot dead, and Shuisky took power as Tsar Vasily IV.
Another imposter
Soon a new impostor, likewise calling himself Dmitri, came forward as the heir and tried to gain the throne. The Polish nobleman Jerzy Mniszech, the father of the first False Dmitri's bride Marina, arranged a so-called "reunion" between the second Dmitri and Marina, who miraculously recognized him as her husband Dmitri and moved in with him. This new Dmitri was supported by the same group of Polish nobles who had propped up the first False Dmitri, and they supplied him with funds and soldiers as he advanced on Moscow in the spring of 1608.
To fight this rebellion, Shuisky signed an alliance with Sweden. Understandably, King Sigismund of Poland felt threatened because Sweden was a rival of the Poles in the Baltic region. So Sigismund intervened and his army defeated Shuisky's army at the Battle of Klushino on the Fourth of July, 1610. A group of Russian nobles deposed Shuisky and recognized Sigismund's son Wladyslaw as the new tsar of Russia. The false Dmitri II was shot in the head, while Shuisky died in a Polish prison.
The first Romanovs
When the Polish king subsequently tried to convert Russia to Roman Catholicism, he provoked more anti-Catholic and anti-Polish sentiments within the nation. The Swedes allied themselves with the Russian Orthodox, in opposition to Poland and the Vatican, and supported a new false Dmitri— the third one. But indigenous Russians refused to accept him, and a new Russian government elected as tsar Michael Romanov, the 16-year-old son of the Russian Orthodox religious leader and grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible's first wife, Anastasia Romanova.
Tsar Michael had the false Dmitri III executed, the three-year-old son of the false Dmitri II hanged, and had Dmitri's wife (and the baby's mother) Marina strangled. Yes, the glamorous and conniving mezzo of the opera finally got her come-uppance.
The Romanov dynasty continued to rule Russia until the Communist revolution in 1917.
Granted, this plot is too sprawling to be contained in one opera. Maybe Victor Hugo could have pulled everything together dramatically in one encompassing novel. A Wagner-like cycle would be needed to give it musical life. At least, with this history in your mind, you should enjoy Boris Godunov more than ever at the Met or in its broadcast.
What, When, Where
Boris Godunov. Opera with music and libretto by Modest Mussorgsky. March 12 and 17, 2011 at Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, New York. www.metoperafamily.org.
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