... Modest Mussorsgy’s opera Boris Godunov displays this evolution of music through its use of national history and national folk music. ...
On January 27th, 1874 Boris Godunov was received for its first time. In the footsteps of the most influential contemporary composer Richard Wagner, Modest Mussorsgy wrote both the music and the libretto to his opera. ... The story shows a time line of events that were thought to have happened in recent years having to do with the murder of a young Tsarevich by the soon to be Tsar Boris. Although this was after the “real” Boris’s time, it was quite unusual for an opera theme to focus on this subject, perhaps it was so unusual, one could call it modern. ... It is Modest’s use of recitative that makes his opera realistic. ... If Wagner had written “Disaster has come, disaster for all of us, O ye Orthodox,” (Boris Prologue) it might not seem so serious or important for the music behind the words would most likely be in the foreground, making the meaning of the words less important. ... This folk style makes Boris’s melody seem never ending or for that matter, never beginning. ... ” (P13) Perhaps Conrad has missed Boris Godunov in his thoughts and generalizations about opera; or perhaps Boris should not be classified as an opera. Boris is a drama accompanied by music not about it.
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