| Mariinsky Opera | ||
| Valery Gergiev | Conductor | |
| Mikhail Kazakov | Bass | Boris Godunov |
| Mikhail Petrenko | Bass | Pimen |
| Anastasia Kalagina | Soprano | Xenia |
| Evgeny Akimov | Tenor | Prince Shuisky |
| Yekaterina Sergeyeva | Mezzo-soprano | Feodor |
| Andrei Popov | Tenor | Simpleton (The yuródivïy or Holy Fool) |
| Alexey Markov | Baritone | Shchelkalov |
| Sergei Aleksashkin | Bass | Varlaam |
'Weep, weep, O soul; soul of poor Russia'. Mussorgsky’sBoris Godunov is Russia’s national epic: the story of a ruler and the ruled, of splendour and suffering, and the all-too human price of power. It’s one of the supreme achievements in Russian opera; and this concert performance by the Mariinsky company under Valery Gergiev – surely the greatest living conductor of Russian opera – is the first of two very different operas being performed in the Mariinsky’s Barbican residency: a nation looking deeply inwards, just as Shchedrin’s The Left-Hander looks to the West.
Tickets £15–£65 plus booking fee