Metropolitan Opera House
February 13, 1943 Matinee Broadcast
In Italian
BORIS GODUNOV {99}
Boris Godunov...........Alexander Kipnis
Prince Shuisky..........Alessio De Paolis
Pimen...................Nicola Moscona
Grigory.................René Maison
Marina..................Kerstin Thorborg
Rangoni.................Leonard Warren
Varlaam.................Norman Cordon
Simpleton...............John Garris
Nikitich................John Gurney
Shchelkalov.............George Cehanovsky
Innkeeper...............Doris Doe
Missail.................John Dudley
Officer.................Osie Hawkins
Xenia...................Marita Farell
Feodor..................Irra Petina
Nurse...................Anna Kaskas
Lavitsky................Lansing Hatfield
Chernikovsky............Lorenzo Alvary
Peasant.................Maxine Stellman
Peasant.................Helen Olheim
Peasant.................Lodovico Oliviero
Peasant.................Wilfred Engelman
Boyar in Attendance.....Emery Darcy
Conductor...............George Szell
[Kipnis always sang Boris in Russian.]
La calidad sonora es discreta, como es habitual en las ediciones noventeras del sello pirata Walhall; pero la competencia en CD no ofrece muchas más alternativas. La publicada por The Fourties aparenta un sonido con más relieve, pero a costa de un efecto de eco poco natural e incluso molesto. La que mejor suena, del sello Music & Arts, sólo incluye una selección, que acompaña otros fragmentos de la ópera cantados por Kipnis y con Reiner dirigiendo (creo que el estreno de la versión de Shostakovich. Carnegie Hall, 23 de julio de 1944). Al margen del asunto discográfico, este broadcast de 1943 supone una valiosa oportunidad para escuchar el Boris de Kipnis. Centrándonos en el bajo ruso, Paul Jackson comenta lo siguiente en el libro "Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met" (pp. 365-367):
"
One particularly radiant occasion was the broadcast of Boris on 13 February 1943. Not only did George Szell offer a completely integrated, dynamic performance of this diffuse masterwork but New York audiences, as well as the radio public, heard for the first time the awesome Boris of Alexander Kipnis. His portrayal must be counted among the most memorable creations of this Metropolitan era.
Kipnis, like Chaliapin, was Russian, and his native tongue is a powerful aid, as it was for his remarkable predecessor in the 1921 revival. Then, and now, all other participants sang in Italian, a wrenching reminder of the bilingual opera not uncommon in earlier times. [...]
Slavic sonority is what Kipnis supplies in abundace. He unleashes a flood of tone, but without any of that lugubrious extra ballast which overburdens most Slavic basses. One marvels at his variety of color, ranging from the profoundly opaque to clarified, even sweet, head tones. His voicing of the coronation scene, fine as it is, is mere prelude to the tragic power he displays within the Kremlin. (Again we are denied the crucial cathedral scene.) Tender with Xenia, commanding as he teaches Fyodor his responsibilities, Kipnis knows the value of the touching vignette. But the power monologue reveals the full scope of his interpretive gifts. His range of feeling is enormous, the command of vocal technique absolute -and all without Chaliapinesquerie- yet the troubled monarch's anguish is fully exposed. (He allows himself only one bit of staginess: 'Aha! Schouisky' he squeezes out at lenght when the traitor enters- a marvelously theatrical coup.) By now Szell is equally persuasive, weaving the orchestral web in the clock scene for maximum effect; Boris normally boasts a duality of protagonists(czar and populace), but Szell's orchestra makes it a triumvirate. Kipnis brings the act to a conclusion with a moving (and songful) prayer for forgiveness. He exposes the heart of Boris even as the czar is racked with terror.
The Kromy scene is perfect fodder for Szell's genius. His musical landscape is alive with the exuberance of a people roused; no drab gray musical colors clothe these revolutionaries. As Boris faces death, Kipnis again proves his right to the czar's crown, offering a rendering superbly varied in timbre, vocal weight, and coloration. Realistic outcries judiciously interrupt the faultless legato phrases; 'I am still czar', he majestically cries at the end -who could dissent? Yet it is Pinza who will open the following season as Boris and sing the next two broadcasts. Undoubtedly the Italian had a vocal droit du seigneur earned by tenure and his own enormous gifts. But for the Kipnis to portray Boris on only two occasions in New York is incomprehensible. Though fifty-two years old at the time of this broadcast, Kipnis' powers are undiminished, and of equal importance, his portrayal is devoid of the caricature which, fostered by time and repetition, so often creeps into even the greatest characterizations. Once again, the preserved aircheck of a broadcast is invaluable, especially when Kipnis' Boris is captured under Szell's superbly disciplined, dramatically taut direction".Y aquí la crítica de Harold Taubman en el New York Times:
"Alexander Kipnis, Russian-born basso of the Metropolitan who became an American citizen a good many years ago, brought his authority and knowledge of the tradition to his first appearance here in the title role of Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunoff" at the Opera House yesterday afternoon. Mr. Kipnis was a regal Boris in song and action when he faced the world and he illuminated the psychology of the troubled Czar in the later, revealing pages of the score.
Like his great Russian predecessor, Feodor Chaliapin, Mr. Kipnis sang Boris in the original language, while the rest of the Metropolitan ensemble sang Italian. To those who understood neither language it was not a ludicrous proceeding, though it was certainly a convincing argument for opera in English, if translations must be employed. However, Mr. Kipnis was wise to sing in Russian. That is the language to which Mussorgsky wrote his music and the part achieves its full stature, power and impact in Russian. Mr. Kipnis's portrayal was one of the best in his gallery of fine characterizations".