Opera Scotland

Modest Musorgsky Suggest updates

Modest Petrovich Musorgsky (or Mussorgsky).

Born Karevo, Pskov, 21 March 1839.

Died St Petersburg, 28 March 1881.

Russian composer.

Musorgsky was a composer of genius, largely self-taught, whose career was eventually interrupted due to his severe alcohol problem. He began with a commission as an army officer, but as a talented pianist interested in composition, he left to pursue a musical career, encouraged by Balakirev. He needed to supplement his private income with civil service work. Many of his most promising pieces either remained unfinished or were completed by other hands, including his friend Rimsky-Korsakov. His completed works are particularly noted for his piano sequence Pictures at an Exhibition, an orchestral work, St John's Night on the Bare Mountain, a few dozen songs, and, above all, his opera Boris Godunov.

Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:

01   Salammbô (1863-6 unfin) (cpsr)

02   The Marriage (unfin; prod St Petersburg 1906) (cpsr)

03   Boris Godunov (1869, rev 1872; St Petersburg 1874; rev Rimsky-Korsakov, St Petersburg 1896) (cpsr)

04   Khovanshchina (comp Rimsky-Korsakov, St Petersburg 1886) (cpsr & Stasov)

05   Sorochintsy Fair (unfin; prod St Petersburg 1911) (cpsr)

© Copyright Opera Scotland 2024

Site by SiteBuddha