Boris Godunov – Coronation scene (Bryn Terfel; The Royal Opera)

Bryn Terfel as the tormented Tsar Boris in Richard Jones’s production of Musorgsky’s magnificent opera. Subscribe to our channel and find out more at Boris Godunov is one of the most dramatically rewarding bass-baritone roles: a noble ruler who loves his children and his people, but whose thirst for power has led him to commit a terrible crime. Musorgsky traces the Tsar’s downfall with psychological acuity, from the nobility of his Coronation to his tragic end in one of opera’s most affecting death scenes. Other highlights include the stirring chorus that opens and closes the Coronation Scene (based on a Russian folksong), Pimen’s austere monologue in Scene 7 and the comic interlude with the monks Varlaam and Missail in Scene 4. Richard Jones’s insightful production reflects the conflict between Boris’s public persona and his private guilt through a set in which the murder of the Tsarevitch Dmitry is ritually