With productions staged in Paris, Vienna and Antwerp in recent seasons and Amsterdam now, Khovanshchina may no longer qualify as a rarity outside of Russia. It remains a daunting work, both for the public and an artistic team, by its sheer length, its myriad of quickly-drawn characters and its fragmented political plot. Christof Loy’s uncluttered staging for Dutch National Opera has the advantage of clarifying this plot. It also leaves the viewer much space to concentrate on Mussorgsky’s gutsy music (performed here in Shostakovich’s orchestration and ending). This is a good thing, as conductor Ingo Metzmacher leads the chorus of DNO, a fine cast of mostly Slavic soloists and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, in a performance which is engrossing.
Based on historical events that stretched over three decades, Khovanshchina (which translates roughly as “The Khovansky Affair”) recounts the clash between progressive and reactionary factions in Russia, at the end of the 17th century. On one side, Vasily Golitsyn and Fyodor Shaklovity represent the reformist camp of young Tsar Peter and his half-sister and regent Sofia Alekseyevna, that is pushing to westernize Russia. On the other side, two very different forces resist those changes: the Streltsy and the Old Believers. The latter are a schismatic movement of the Russian Orthodox Church which refused the reforms introduced in 1666 by Patriarch Nikon to realign Russian liturgy with the Greek orthodoxy. Their leader in the opera is Dosifey, and the fortune teller Marfa is one of them.
The Streltsy (sometimes translated as Musqueteers, as they carry firearms) are a rowdy militia of elite guards, mainly issued from the old Russian gentry, but, by the end of the 17th century, mostly decommissioned and past their prime. They are led by the boyar Ivan Khovansky who, after having supported the regency of Sofia, is rumoured to be rebelling, assumedly to put his own son Andrey on the throne. Khovansky is eventually assassinated by Shaklovity. Golitsyn is disgraced and exiled for being associated with him. The Streltsy are rounded up and arrested. As they are led to their execution, a herald announces the Tsar’s pardon. The Old Believers’ fate is not as lucky: realizing the rebellion is crushed, they gather in a secluded monastery in the forest and Dosifey leads Marfa, Khovansky’s son Andrey and all the Old Believers onto a pyre in a mass suicide.
Christof Loy’s staging does not totally shy away from the historical origins of the plot. During the magnificent prelude, the curtain opens on a tableau vivant reproducing “The morning of the Streltsy’s execution”, a painting by Vasily Surikov, a contemporary of Mussorgsky. Except for the very end, this first tableau is the only visually spectacular moment of the performance. Quickly, characters shed their historical costumes for modern outfits (mainly business suits for men and nouveau-riche party dresses for women) and start enacting their roles in a timeless political drama. The sets by Johannes Leiacker are often minimalist to the extreme – the whole of Act II is played in front of a plain white background, with a chair and a table as only props – but I found the lack of visual stimuli pushes one to really concentrate on the movements of characters and the chorus on stage, therefore helping clarifying the plot as it progresses.