Boris Godunov will open the Scala theater season on December 7, in the original version written by Musorgsky in 1869 and rejected by the St. Petersburg theater commission for being too revolutionary.
And even today this work causes discussion, if only because of the request made by the Ukrainian consul Andrii Kartysh not to stage it while the war with Russia is underway so that it does not become an instrument of Russian propaganda.
"We don't do any propaganda for Putin," superintendent Dominique Meyer assured.
"Let's spare ourselves the somewhat superficial controversies, let's try to understand what it is about with the cells of the brain, not with the belly" he said at the presentation press conference, inviting everyone to read the booklet and see the show.
The story of Boris - who becomes tsar after killing the heir to the throne as a child and is then torn apart by guilt - "does not make an apology for a political regime but exactly the opposite".
And even if the consul's position "is understandable", "I can't share it. There is a tendency today to cancel certain titles, but I'm not for the auto-da-fé and I'm not ready to hide when I read Dostevsky or Pushkin".
No to censorship at La Scala, therefore, who was "the first to do something" at the outbreak of the conflict, asking the conductor Valery Gergiev for a statement to hope for a peaceful solution, replacing him when he didn't respond.
And then again he organized a concert in April that raised 380 thousand euros and welcomed the dance school of the
Academy a group of students arrived from Kiev.
Boris's project dates back to three years ago.
To the Russian attack on Ukraine "we asked ourselves if it was right to do so and the answer is yes" added director Kasper Holten, former director of the Royal Opera House in London who made use of Es Devlin for the sets, an artist who signed Adele's world tour and Superbowl halftime show.
"The world needs more art, not less. And Musorgsky was an artist who questioned power, unmasked its cruelty. That's why it's right to do it now," he added.
In Boris, Holten wanted to underline the Shakespearean elements, the resemblance to powerful men destroyed by power and remorse such as Richard III and Macbeth who opened the last Scala season.
L'
introduction of an interval serves to split up the work, giving two different perspectives.
The first with the spectator who sees what is happening from the outside, the second entering Boris' troubled mind as evidenced by the ghosts that torment him.
A Boris "with heart and soul, but with the remorse of having killed a child" as explained by the bass Ildar Abdrazakov who plays him at his sixth La Scala inauguration.
The critical edition of the original version of Boris is read by musical director Riccardo Chailly "with today's taste to underline the modernity in the narration" of a work that is part of the history of La Scala.
Performed by great masters such as Arturo Toscanini and Claudio Abbado in 1979, when Chially was his assistant.
