Word: christoff
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...East. Igor, as a P.O.W., must resist the charms of the Khan's slave girls singing Borodin's most popular themes, The Polovtsian Dances, not to mention a suave invitation from the Khan to join up and "together feed on the blood of our enemies." Boris Christoff sings two major roles boomingly: the comparatively noble Khan Konchak and the curiously ignoble Russian Prince Galitsky. Constantin Chekerliiski does well as Igor, and his colleagues of the Sofia National Theater Opera, under Conductor Jerzy Semkow, contribute to the opera's oriental beauty...
...perfection has brought remarkable results. The company has given the first U.S. performances of such works as Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream and Cherubini's Medea, revivals of Nabucco and Ariadne auf Naxos, American opera debuts to such singers as Birgit Nilsson, Leontyne Price, Boris Christoff, Sandor Konya and Sutherland. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who has yet to sing at New York's Metropolitan, has been appearing in San Francisco since 1955. On good nights, the opera's chorus and ballet are matchless in the U.S., and some of San Francisco's stage sets make...
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (Boris Christoff; Angel) features the best of the half a dozen great Borises in a superb recording. Christoff sings three roles in his amazingly rich basso, and the Sofia National Opera chorus is matchless in the music. Three LPs, sung in Russian...
Outside Paris, Christoff is generally considered the best Boris, and his new recording (Angel) is unquestionably the top. London has also recorded the opera's great arias (Columbia), but his claim to the role is more in acting than in voice; his basso register is weak; his voice is a shade too high and light for Boris' thundering miseries. Cesare Siepi sang an unforgettable Boris at the Met for years, but his Mediterranean approach to the role introduces the irrelevant question of Whom Does Boris Love...
Boris' death scene gives every basso the dramatic treat of getting to pitch himself down a flight of stairs if he cares to. In Europe, Christoff and Petrov die quietly, as if by surprise, but the Met's staging invites a good fall. London, the intellectual Boris, dies intelligently-a heave, a cry, a little gasp, and he's gone, rolling gently down the stairs. Hines, though, plays it for all he's worth. Clawing the air, grasping his heaving chest, he cries his final line ("Forgive me! Forgive me!") and pitches himself headlong down...