Modest Musorgsky 's Operas Multiple Choice Quiz | Music

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Both 'Khovanshchina' and 'Boris Godounov' were completed and re-orchestrated by another Russian composer. Who was he?

Answer: Nikolaj Rimsky Korsakov

Korsakov: 1844-1908. Borodin 1833-1887. Tchaikovsky 1840-1893. Strawinsky:1882-1971.

2. In the Prologue we hear there is a new Czar. He has risen from the ranks of the boyars,in rather unclear circumstances. What were those 'boyars' in seventeenth century Russia ?

Answer: landowners with an advisory role in the rule of the country

The 'boyars' were the upper nobility in Russia from tenth century through the seventeenth.At first they had been military supporters of the Kievan princes. Later they had become landowners. They occupied the highest state offices and were the advisers of the princes.

The rank and title of 'boyar' was abolished by Peter the Great(1672-1725) who felt they were an obstacle to his modernisation campaign. In 'Khovanshtchina' it is clear that they were somewhat sandwiched between the extreme conservatives such as the 'raskolniki' and 'streltsy' on the one hand and the impetuous reformer the Czar Peter the Great on the other hand.

3. In the first Scene of the first Act we meet with a monk named Pimen and his young student Grigory. Pimen makes a remark about similarities between Gregory and the supposedly murdered Czarevitch.What has he noticed?

Answer: They both have the same age.

In 1584 Czar Iwan the Terrible died leaving two sons Fyodor (who became Czar) and Dimitri.Soon the boyar Boris Godounov was appointed regent to the weak-minded Fyodor. In 1591 Czarevitch Dimitri was found dying from a knife wound and it was rumoured that Boris was responsible.

4. True or False: After a while Grigory flees from the monastery. The police are after him. He is stopped by a policeman who asks him to read out a description of a fugitive which he himself cannot read as he is illiterate. Grigory discovers it's a description that fits himself.

Answer: True

Grigory makes an instant description of somebody else in their company , nl. the vagabond monk Varlaam, who is arrested. When Varlaam reads the description he understands that it is Grigory who was meant and he helps the police organising the pursuit of Gregory.

5. We soon notice that Grigory is trying to pose as:____________________

Answer: the murdered Czarevitch

The new Czar Boris had a son Fyodor and a daughter Xenia.In a way similar to Shakespeare's Macbeth Boris Godounov's (supposed?) crime does not pay. Gradually his power begins to disintegrate. Miracles are reported near the tomb of the murdered Czarevitch.

The people see in all this a sure proof of Godounov's guilt. He gradually loses his self-assurance. The typically Russian 'holy idiot' will even greet him as Czar Herod.

6. The Czar tries to obtain the ex-communication of the runaway monk Grigory.A representative of the Catholic Church on the contrary tries to make a deal with Grigory: Rome will give him their support if he promises to re-introduce Roman Catholicism in Russia. From what religious order did Pushkin recruit his R.C. secret agent to make things appear in keeping with traditional stereotypes?

Answer: Jesuits

The Jesuit Rangoni is the 'confessor' of Princess Marina the woman whom Grigory is in love with. Marina uses Grigory as a tool for her own dream: becoming the new Czarina. The resistance against Boris is led from Poland where Catholics and agents of Rome hope to win back Czarist Russia for the Roman-Catholic Church.

7. The outcome of the opera shows that only the typically Russian 'holy idiot' has been aware that the mass of common people who have put the 'false czarevitch' (or 'false Dimitri') on the throne, have been cheated. Which detail at the end of the play is a symbol for the 'false Dimitri' being a man of trickery?

Answer: he releases a few jesuits

As an audience we can observe all the trickery that is going on within the anti-Boris coalition. The great manipulator is Princess Marina Rangoni who in turn is manipulated by the Jesuits. When we see the people naively thinking it is God himself who has put the missing Czarevitch on the throne, we know that the powers behind Grigori (= the false Dimitri) are not divine.

They are a mix of various interests and one of the most important parties involved is 'Rome'. And as the Jesuits are traditionally seen as the C.I.A. of the Roman-Catholic church, the release of the two Jesuits shows us that Grigory has not been put on the throne by God, not even by the Holy Russian People...but by a mixed batch of intriguers.

8. Mussorgsky's other famous opera 'Chovantchina' mainly deals with the struggle between the conservatives and the reformer Peter the Great. One group of opponents are the 'streltsy', led by the Princes Iwan and Andrei Chovanski. What were those 'strelsy' originally ?

Answer: 'shooters' ;members of Iwan the Terrible's elite troops

The 'streltsy' had been created by Czar Iwan the Terrible as an elite personal guard. Prince Iwan Chowanski and his son Andrei are descendants from them. They are unhappy about the evolutions in Russia especially as the New Czar does not want to depend on them and has created his own elite guard. For sheer spite the 'streltsy' now terrorize the Moscow area. Young Andrei is so callous to even try to sexually harass Emma, a German girl whose father he just has killed. Rather than to protest ,Iwan lecherously tries to have the girl for himself.

In another scene Iwan quarrels with his fellow 'streltsy' leader Prince Golitsin over who is superior in rank. Golitsin is proud about his conquest of Poland and his political victories over the boyars. The boyars (Shaklovity a.o.) try to get help from their worst enemy in the power struggle within Russia: the Czar. Peter the Great's fury against those that tried to thwart his modernisation and renovation campaign, was without boundaries.

He morally tortured the 'streltsy' by making them walk in procession to their place of execution, carrying the blocks on which and the axes with which they were to be put to death. Also the so-called 'Old Believers' under Prince Dosifei will be urged to cruelly lay out the stake on which he wants them to burn themselves.

9. Another group who is in an uneasy situation are the 'raskolniki'. Their leader is Prince Dossifei. They are very much in favour of a status quo and of the old values, but their protests are more moderate and peaceful. What does the term 'raskolniki' refer to?

Answer: religious dissenters

Raskolnikov is of course the name of the student who in 'Crime and Punishment' murders the moneylender Alena Ivanovna.

10. The end of the story is bloody and tragic. Peter the Great is utterly heartless and cruel in his revenge.The streltsy have themselves to carry the blocks and the axes required for their beheading to the place of their execution, but at the very last moment they are told that their lives will be spared. What happens to the group of raskolniki or 'Old Believers' around Prince Dossifei?

Answer: he and his followers take their own lives in a massive fire

That the raskoliki took their lives of their own initiative is probably a romantic version of the truth. Probably Peter invited them to organise a self-sacrificial pyre as an alternative for much worse if he had to take charge of their execution. It is clear that Peter was hurt in the deepest of his ambitions: to make Russia a nation on the same level as the nations of the West.

Source: Author flem-ish

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Modest Musorgsky 's Operas Trivia Quiz

Few operas are as impressive as 'Boris Godounov', an opera existing in two versions.'Khovanshchina', the story about Peter the Great, crushing the rebellion of his conservative opponents, has little to cede to it. Test yourself on your knowledge.

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