Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.It was Russia’s Jonestown, but on repeat: 17th-century Old Believers — Christians who broke with the Russian Orthodox church — were prone to mass acts of self-immolation. Modest Mussorgsky’s Chowanschtschina ends with one of these conflagrations, in itself a difficult thing to stage. Add to that the labyrinthine complexities of the opera’s warring streltsy infantry, boyars, clerics, women and putative regents, and it’s easy to understand both why the composer did not manage to finish the piece, and why it is seldom performed outside Russia today.For the Berlin Staatsoper’s new staging, director Claus Guth has chosen the play-within-a-play trope — with a twist. In his version, the action plays out in the back rooms of today’s Kremlin, part of a historical re-enactment observed and filmed by scientists in a bid to learn from the past. Of course, things go horribly wrong.The production was to have its premiere in March 2020, but it is astonishing how well the concept works in the context of today’s war in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s obsession with history and his penchant for repeating its mistakes seem to be baked into the staging’s DNA. Though we have all seen similar concepts far too often on the opera stage, Guth’s work is so meticulous, his craft so assured, that it works.More overwhelming, though, is the music. Simone Young conducts Shostakovich’s orchestration of the score with Stravinsky’s ending and fewer cuts than usual; the Staatskapelle orchestra is on peak form, and the monumental whole unfolds with inexorable force and spine-tingling narrative tension.The singing is uniformly superb. The two warring basses (Mika Kares as Prince Iwan Chowansky and Taras Shtonda as high priest Dossifei) and their baritone rival Bojar Schaklowity (George Gagnidze) are all formidable; the two rival tenors, Prince Andrei (Najmiddin Mavlyanov) and Prince Wassili (Stephan Rügamer) equal in virile intensity and nuance; young Lutheran girl Emma (Evelin Novak) gives an impassioned account of her victimised character, while Marina Prudenskaya wins tumultuous applause for her wily, richly complex account of Old Believer Marfa.And the chorus is on superb form. Young carries the singers with incredible care, making sure that the massive orchestra never overwhelms them; and she brings a remarkable combination of Wagnerian weight and glass-clear transparency to the orchestral lines, letting the story unfold with an unerring sense of pacing and drama. This is a musical evening a cut above what Berlin opera houses usually offer, and well worth repeated hearings.★★★★☆To June 23, staatsoper-berlin.de
