Walter Meyer wrote:

>The speaker was James Billington, who is the Librarian of Congress.  He's
>also an honors graduate of Princeton, a Rhodes scholar, has taught at
>Harvard and Princeton and can recall attending Boris performances going
>back to when Ezio Pinza sang it in Italian.

And the author of "The Icon and the Axe," one of the best histories of Russia
ever written. (much on Billington's lecture snipped)

>The production, listed as lasting three hours and fifty minutes including
>one (sic) intermission, actually lasted about a half hour longer.  I got
>out of the theater at 12:20 am.  Four hours of agony, suffering, relieved
>only by the innkeeper scene, and the intrigue-laden "romance" between
>Grigory and Marina about neither of whom I gave a damn.

Oh dear.  It's true, Boris *can* go on.  I've seen the Bolshoi company
do it a couple of times.  The last time I took my kids.  We had a box to
ourselves, and they fell asleep about two hours into it.  This might be one
of those works where the more you are into things Russian, the more you
like it.  I like it.

>What did I like about the production?
>
>Mostly staging.

Walter will have seen the Washington Post's review of Boris, but presumably
many Listers have not.  It's probably available at the Post site, though I
haven't checked.  In a few words, Tim Page thought that this was possibly
the greatest opera performance ever staged in Washington.  He didn't use
quite those words but his intent was pretty clear.  I wish I could have
been there.

Thanks for your thoughtful review, Walter.

Mitch Friedfeld