Boris Godunov (tragedy)

"Boris Godunov" was written under the influence of reading " History of the Russian State " and is dedicated to the period of the reign of Boris Godunov from 1598 to 1605 and the invasion of False Dmitry I. At a meeting with Emperor Nicholas I (which put an end to the exile), Pushkin read to him excerpts from Boris Godunov.

The drama is written in imitation of the historical chronicles of Shakespeare - mostly a white verse with several prosaic scenes. Served as a prototype of a number of works not only of Russian literature, but also of European (in the postmodern art , the image of Boris is repeatedly beaten by Rob-Grieux ).

The whole play was first published (with censorship abbreviations) at the end of December 1830 with the publication date of 1831 , but was staged only in 1866 . The reason for this is the alleged invalidity of the work. But most importantly - until 1866, the tragedy was banned for presentation on the stage. With censorship exemptions and reductions, it was staged for the first time on September 17, 1870 at the Mariinsky Theater by artists of the Alexandrinsky Theater ^[1] .

The tragedy marked Pushkin’s complete departure from romanticism with its heroism to the realistic embodiment of character images. Nevertheless, in a letter to P. A. Vyazemsky from July 13, 1825 from Mikhailovsky to Tsarskoye Selo, Pushkin calls his work “a romantic tragedy,” as I. Semenko suggests, “primarily for freedom of invention, a decisive overthrow of the canons of classical drama” ^[2] .

Pushkin used for the plot the version of the assassination of Tsarevich Dmitry on the orders of Boris Godunov, which is disputed, see the Uglich case .

According to S. Bondi, the main character of the Boris Godunov tragedy is the people, Bondi wrote: “The characters of the play always speak about the people, their opinions, their love and hatred, on which the fate of the state depends” ^[3] .

One of the main topics raised in the tragedy is power and man. The problem of the temptation of power is outlined by the example of Boris Godunov, Grigory Otrepiev , Prince Shuisky , Peter Basmanov , Marina Mnishek .

• 1598 year. After the death of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, people beg his brother-in-law Boris, who had shut up in the monastery, to accept the crown. He does not immediately, but agrees. Against this background, a dialogue between the princes of Shuisky and Vorotynsky takes place.
• 1603 year. Miracles Monastery . Keleynik Grishka Otrepyev learns from his elder Pimen the details of the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry Uglichsky and escapes, planning to impersonate the latter. The Kremlin finds out about him and announces a wanted list. Otrepyev is trying to cross the Lithuanian border, before that he was almost caught in the inn. In the house of the boyar Shuisky, the latter, along with another boyar, Athanasius Pushkin , read out a letter about the appearance of the miraculously saved Tsarevich, after which Shuisky sent with news to the Tsar. Boris Godunov, terrified by the news, is tormented by his conscience and threatens to inquire from Shuisky whether the prince really died. In Krakow, in the house of Wisniewiecki, the Pretender begins to gather his retinue. Then, in the castle of the governor Mnishek in Sambir, he looks after the owner’s daughter Marina and even admits to her that he is just a runaway monk. For Marina, it only turns out to be important whether False Dmitry will elevate her to the Moscow throne.
• 1604 year. The Pretender’s army crosses the border. In the Kremlin, the Patriarch gives advice on transferring the relics of Tsarevich Dmitry from Uglich to Moscow: it was revealed that Saint Demetrius and the miracle worker, and exposing the relics for general veneration would help expose the impostor in False Dmitry. However, Shuisky, seeing Boris's confusion, ornately rejects this proposal.
• In December, a battle takes place near Novgorod-Seversky, where Godunov’s troops lose. On Cathedral Square, the holy fool accuses Boris of murder. In Sevsk, False Dmitry interrogates a captured nobleman, soon after which his army is defeated. In Moscow, Tsar Boris suddenly dies, having managed to bless his son Fedor to the kingdom. Gavrila Pushkin pushes the main of the governor Godunov, caressed by the tsar, but rootless Basmanov, for treason. Then, at the Forefront, Pushkin proclaims the power of False Dmitry and provokes a rebellion against Godunov’s children. Boyars enter the house where Tsar Fedor and his sister and their mother are imprisoned, and strangle them. Boyarin Mosalsky announces to the people (the last words of the tragedy): “People! Maria Godunova and her son Theodore poisoned themselves with poison. We saw their dead bodies. ( beat ) Why are you silent? shout: long live Tsar Dimitry Ivanovich! ” The people are silent.

In 1869, Modest Mussorgsky wrote the opera of the same name on the text of the drama.

Among the subsequent playwrights who tried to follow in the footsteps of Pushkin, A.K. Tolstoy should be especially noted. In his historical trilogy (The Death of John the Terrible ( 1865 ), Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich ( 1868 ) and Tsar Boris ( 1870 )), Tolstoy, as it were, repeats the main contrast between the boyars led by Belsky , Shuysky , Mstislavsky , the rootless upstart Godunov .

• September 17, 1870 - the very first production on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater by artists of the Alexandrinsky Theater (dir. Alexander Yablochkin , sets by Matvey Shishkov ; Boris - Leonid Leonidov , False Dmitriy - Vasily Samoilov , Pimen - Peter Grigoryev , Marina Mnishek - Elena Struyskaya , Shuisky - Peter Zubrov ) .
• November 19, 1880 - in the same edition, the first production in the Maly Theater in Moscow (dir. Sergei Chernevsky ; Boris - Nikolay Wilde , False Dmitriy - Alexander Lensky , Pimen - Ivan Samarin , Marina Mnishek - Maria Ermolova , Shuisky - Osip Pravdin , Basmanov - Mikhail Lentovsky ).
• October 14, 1899 - Maly Theater (Boris - Fedor Gorev , False Dmitriy - Alexander Yuzhin , Pimen - Ryabov, Varlaam - Vladimir Maksheev , Misail - Mikhail Sadovsky , Mistress of the inn - Olga Sadovskaya , Foolish - Nikolai Muzil ).
• October 10, 1907 - the Moscow Art Theater for the first time in its most complete version (22 of the 24 scenes of the tragedy) (directed by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and Luzhsky , artistic director Victor Simov ; Boris - Alexander Vishnevsky , False Dmitriy - Moskvin , Pimen - Kachalov , Marina Mnishek - Germanova , Shuisky - Luga , Varlaam - Ilya Uralov ).
• February 13, 1905 - the public theater of the Ligovsky People’s House. Petersburg (dir. P. Gaideburov )
• 1908 - Alexandrinsky Theater - two episodic performances in favor of the construction of the Pushkin monument in St. Petersburg (Boris - Ge , False Dmitriy - Khodotov , Shuisky - K. Yakovlev , Varlaam - Davydov , Misail - Varlamov ).

Before the revolution of 1917, tragedy was extremely rare in provincial theaters (sometimes excerpts from scenes for anniversaries were staged). Only statements are known:

November 18, 1871 - Kazan, the enterprise of Medvedev , the benefit of Davydov , who performed the role of False Dmitriy.

1899 - Petinsky (Voronezh province) Bunakov village theater.

• November 13, 1934 - Leningrad Drama Theater. Pushkin (dir. Sushkevich , thin. Rudy; Boris - Simonov , False Dmitriy - Babochkin , Pimen - Yakov Malyutin , Marina - Eugenia Wolf-Israel , Varlaam - Nikolai Cherkasov ), ibid. (1949; dir. Leonid Vivien , thin. Popov)
• 1937 - Maly Theater (dir. Khokhlov , thin. Schuko ; Boris - Lenin , False Dmitriy - Annenkov , Pimen - Podgorny , Marina Mnishek - Gogoleva , Shuisky - Yakovlev, Varlaam - Zrazhevsky , Foolish - Lebedev)
• 1937 - collective farm and state farm theater of the Leningrad Executive Committee (dir. Gaideburov ).
• 1937 (to the centenary of the death of Pushkin): Orenburg, Voronezh, Smolensky, Novosibirsk Red Torch Theater, Orekhovo-Zuevsky, Sverdlovsky, Ryazan, Krasnodar, Bashkir Academic. Theater (Ufa), Tajik Theater. Lahuti (Stalinabad), Komi dram. theater (Syktyvkar) and many others. other
• 1938 - Leningrad New Theater of Young Spectators (dir. Zon and Soynikova, thin. Grigoryev)
• 1949 - Theater. Franco , Kiev (Boris - Yuri Shumsky , Marina - Natalia Uzhviy ).
• 1957 - Theater named after Rustaveli (Tbilisi), Central Children's Theater (Moscow).
• 1982 - Theater on the Taganka . The performance was banned. Resumed in 1988
• 2014 - Lenkom , Moscow (dir. Konstantin Bogomolov ).
• 2015 - Et Cetera , Moscow (dir. Peter Stein )

With the reading of excerpts from the tragedy , V.I. Kachalov repeatedly spoke on the radio and on the stage.

• Boris Godunov (film, 1907) ; Director I. Shuvalov. The movie did not survive

• Boris Godunov (film, 1986) ; Director Sergey Bondarchuk
• 1987 - Boris Godunov (USSR). Director Boris Nebieridze .
• Boris Godunov (film, 2011) ; Director Vladimir Mirzoev.

screen version of the play

• 1970 - Boris Godunov (scenes from the tragedy) - television show. Director Anatoly Efros
• 1999 - video recording of the Taganka Theater; Director Yuri Lyubimov . Conductor - Valery Gergiev . Cast: Vitaly Shapovalov, Valery Zolotukhin, Yuri Belyaev, Alexey Grabbe, Alexander Trofimov, Ivan Bortnik and others.

film adaptation of the opera

• 1955 - Boris Godunov (film, 1954) ; Director V. Stroeva
• 1980 - Boris Godounov / Boris Godounov (TV) (France) Director . Ruggiero Raimondi - Boris; Viorica Cortes - Marina
• 1987 - Boris Godunov (TV) (Great Britain, USSR). Director Derek Bailey.
• 1989 - Boris Godunov (film, 1989) ; Director A. Zhulavsky , conductor M. Rostropovich ; R. Raimondi - Boris, G. Vishnevskaya - Marina.
• 1990 - video of the Mariinsky (Kirovsky) Theater, directors Andrei Tarkovsky , . Conductor - Valery Gergiev . Boris - Robert Lloyd , Marina - Olga Borodina , Impostor - Alexey Steblyanko , Rangoni - Sergey Leiferkus . The full (lifetime) version of 1872.
• 2004 - Boris Godunov (USA) Director Xavi Beauvais.
• 2007 - video recording of the Bolshoi Theater; Director Alexander Sokurov - see section: Video recordings.
• 2011 - film adaptation in a modern manner; Director Vladimir Mirzoev.
• 2012 - video recording of the Mariinsky Theater; Director Andrei Tarkovsky . Conductor - Valery Gergiev . Boris - Evgeny Nikitin , Pimen - Mikhail Kit , Impostor - Sergey Semishkur . The first version of 1869.

It was after completing work on Boris Godunov that Pushkin wrote to Pyotr Vyazemsky about November 7, 1825, from Mikhailovsky to Moscow: “My tragedy is over; I scanned her out loud, alone, and beat and clasped, oh yes yes Pushkin, oh yes son of a bitch! " ^[5] .

Pushkin’s only complete dramatic work, “Boris Godunov,” is essentially not drama at all, but represents only a series of externally interconnected scenes. But then these individual scenes are distinguished by their amazing artistry ( Katkov, M.N. ) ^[6]

• And the boys are bloody in the eyes
• House of Venevitinov