Boris Godunov

Tsar of Russia from 1598; see Boris Godunov.

Boris Godunov

Opera by Mussorgsky (libretto by composer, based on Aleksandr Pushkin's drama and N M Karamazin's History of the Russian Empire), composed 1868–69 and enlarged and revised 1871–72; this later version was cut and first produced at the Imperial Opera, St Petersburg, Russia, on 8 February 1874, the original having been rejected in 1870. Rimsky-Korsakov's version was first produced at the St Petersburg Imperial Opera on 10 December 1896; this was further revised by Rimsky-Korsakov in 1908. The original work was first produced in Leningrad (St Petersburg) on 16 February 1928. The plot describes how Boris becomes tsar after having the heir to the throne murdered, but his guilt drives him insane and he eventually collapses and dies.