Facts about Khovanshchina

1. 08

   Shostakovich created an alternative completion of Khovanshchina in 1959, reorchestrating the opera with a notably darker and more dissonant sound than Rimsky-Korsakov's version.

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2. 07

   Khovanshchina's libretto was written entirely by Mussorgsky himself between 1872 and 1880, making it one of the few major operas with music and words by the same composer.

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3. 06

   Maria's aria In the Golden Chamber ranks among Khovanshchina's most psychologically complex moments, exploring the character's spiritual desperation through a twelve-minute solo scene.

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4. 05

   Emma Calvé's 1913 Metropolitan Opera performance as Maria established her as the defining interpreter of Khovanshchina's tragic heroine for early twentieth-century audiences.

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5. 04

   During the 1689 Moscow uprising depicted in Khovanshchina, the rebel Streltsy garrison numbered approximately 20,000 soldiers before their eventual suppression by Peter the Great's forces.

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6. 03

   In 1886, Rimsky-Korsakov orchestrated and revised Khovanshchina extensively, adding the famous Dawn on the Moscow River prelude that now opens most productions.

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7. 02

   The opera's plot centers on the 1682 Khovansky Revolt, a rebellion by Moscow's Streltsy guards against Peter the Great's modernization reforms.

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8. 01

   Mussorgsky's 1872 opera Khovanshchina remained incomplete at his death, requiring completion by Rimsky-Korsakov and later Shostakovich.

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