Lyric Opera’s ‘Boris Godunov’ full of outstanding performances

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Ferruccio Furlanetto (with Emily Fons as young Fyodor) performs a haunting Boris Godunov | DAN REST~lyric opera

Updated: December 10, 2011 9:52AM

Opera’s most famous mad woman (Lucia in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor”) wrapped up her run at Lyric Opera of Chicago on Saturday — just in time to clear the stage for one of opera’s greatest mad men, the guilt-ridden 17th century Russian czar of Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov.”

On Monday, Lyric revived its austerely handsome 1994-95 production of the opera, and at its center is Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, a stellar artist making a shockingly late Lyric debut. On opening night, Furlanetto’s Boris was a riveting combination of commanding authority and heart-wrenching despair.

Completed in 1869, Mussorgsky’s opera has gone through numerous revisions, including a longer version by Mussorgsky himself in 1872. In recent decades, most opera houses, including Lyric, have gone back to the composer’s tautly woven original. The score’s lush, dark colors and echoes of Russian folk and liturgical music, which once seemed crude and excessive, now sound exactly right. Mussorgsky wanted to write music that was unmistakably Russian, and he succeeded beyond any doubt in his first version of “Boris Godunov.”

Surrounded by a cast whose singing was uniformly full-bodied and richly hued, Furlanetto’s Boris was a towering yet all-too-human character. The czar consumed by guilt over the murder that brought him to Russia’s throne in 1598 is one of the Italian bass’ signature roles. Cutting a handsome figure with his wild mane of graying hair and flowing, fur-rimmed robes, Furlanetto has honed it to a complex psychological profile.

His is not a sepulchral bass, one of those voices whose low register conveys the chill of the grave itself. On Monday we were drawn to Boris by the all-enveloping warmth and flexibility of Furlanetto’s singing. Yes, he was a supreme ruler. As he grappled with a scheming courtier (the wonderfully sinister Slovakian tenor Stefan Margita), we didn’t doubt that he would happily murder the man in a minute.

But Furlanetto was equally believable in tender scenes with his beloved children. Warmly hugging his teenage daughter, Xenia, smiling at the chatter of his bright young heir, Fyodor, he was a loving papa. And when Boris’ diseased mind began to destroy his body, Furlanetto’s blend of powerful voice and broken spirit was chilling.

The evening’s voice with hints of the grave belonged to another Italian bass, Andrea Silvestrelli. A frequent guest at Lyric, he sings Pimen, the aged monk who knows Boris’ hidden role in the murder of a rival for the throne. Silvestrelli’s finely grained, expansive sound conveyed both the wisdom of age and rage at a crime unpunished.

Other soloists — including Erik Nelson Werner (the treasonous Grigori), Edward Mout (a haunting Holy Fool), Raymond Aceto (the merry monk, Varlaam), Emily Fons (young Fyodor) and Emily Birsan (Xenia) — were equally convincing.

First directed by Stein Winge, this production, owned by the San Francisco Opera, has been restaged with zest by Julia Pevzner. As the robust Russian people, haughty courtiers in brocade robes or somber nobles, the chorus was full of energy. Surging across the stage, they sang with richly blended, expressive power. Under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis, Lyric’s music director, the orchestra provided its own sumptuous, brightly colored voice.

Wynne Delacoma is a Chicago free-lance writer.