[Met Performance] CID:186410
Boris Godunov {157} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/3/1960.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
December 3, 1960
In English
BORIS GODUNOV {157}
Boris Godunov...........Jerome Hines
Prince Shuisky..........Charles Kullman [Last performance]
Pimen...................Giorgio Tozzi
Grigory.................Brian Sullivan
Marina..................Brenda Lewis
Rangoni.................Kim Borg
Varlaam.................Fernando Corena
Simpleton...............Paul Franke
Nikitich................Louis Sgarro
Mitiukha................Thomas Powell
Woman...................Thelma Votipka
Shchelkalov.............Calvin Marsh
Innkeeper...............Martha Lipton
Missail.................Charles Anthony
Officer.................Osie Hawkins
Xenia...................Teresa Stratas
Feodor..................Joan Wall
Nurse...................Mignon Dunn
Khrushchov..............Kurt Kessler
Lavitsky................John Trehy
Chernikovsky............Hal Roberts
Boyar in Attendance.....Robert Nagy
Dance...................Ron Sequoio
Conductor...............Erich Leinsdorf
Review of Ronald Eyer in the New York Herald Tribune
Jerome Hines Sings Lead in 'Boris Godunov'
The fifth performance this season of Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" at the Metropolitan Saturday night brought the return of Jerome Hines to the title role and of Charles Kullman as Prince Schuisky and the first appearances of Fernando Corena as Varlaam and Joan Wall as Feodor.
Despite the regal height of his frame and the sonorous depth of his voice, Mr. Hines was only intermittently convincing as the half-mad regicide. Admittedly, Boris is one of the most difficult roles in all opera due to the larger-than-life character of the Czar as recreated by Mussorgsky and the magnetic grandeur combined with a sense of inner frenzy that he must generate whenever he is on the stage. Too often, Mr. Hines seemed to be just a singer dressed in royal robes.
Mr. Kullman made little attempt to develop the Machiavellian, Iago-like figure of Schuisky and there was no compensation in the quality of his singing. Mr. Corena, who is on his way to becoming a great character actor, made a redolently besotted Varlaam without being silly about it, and Miss Wall, in a boy's role, was animatedly busy but largely inaudible.
Others in the cast were Martha Lipton, Brenda Lewis, Giorgio Tozzi, Brian Sullivan and Kim Borg. Erich Leinsdorf conducted.