January 27, 1874: The Opera "Boris Godunov" Premieres

Modest Mussorgsky

January 27, 1874: The opera Boris Godunov has its premiere, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire. It was composed by Modest Mussorgsky, and based on the play of the same title, published by Alexander Pushkin in 1831, but not staged until 1870.

Godunov was a real person. He was born on August 12, 1552 in Vyazma, Russia. He was an archer in the army, who was selected for the personal guard of Ivan IV, the 1st "Czar (or Tsar) of All the Russias." Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and Czar from then until his death in 1584, he became known as Ivan the Terrible, and while his reign was characterised by Russia's transformation from a medieval state to a fledgling empire, it came at an immense cost to its people and long-term economy. It says a lot that many leaders have been called "the Great" (including Ivan's father, Ivan III), and a few have been called "the Cruel," but only Czar Ivan IV of Russia is known as "the Terrible."

Ivan the Terrible

In 1580, Ivan approved the marriage of his son, Feodor, to Boris' sister, Irina. This gained Boris a promotion to the rank of boyar, basically the equivalent of a duke. Boris was present on November 15, 1581, when Ivan murdered his son and heir, Ivan, resulting in the Czar immediately regretting his action, and Boris attempting to get help for the son, but it did no good.

Feodor thus became the heir to the throne. But Ivan knew that Feodor was mentally ill. Upon Ivan's death, Boris basically ran the empire until Czar Feodor I died without an heir in 1598. This led to what became known as the Time of Troubles.

At the time of his death, Ivan had a 3-year-old son, Dmitry, from his 7th and last marriage. But the Eastern Orthodox Church only recognized Ivan's 1st 3 marriages as legitimate, making Dmitry ineligible for the throne. Boris had Dmitri and his mother moved far away, and the boy died at the age of 10 under suspicious circumstances. This led to a rebellion, which Boris quickly put down. After Feodor's death, the Church supported Boris.

At first, he was popular. He brought in foreign teachers, improving Russian education. He allowed Lutheran, and therefore Protestant, churches to be built in Russia, knowing that the Eastern Orthodox Church would support him in keeping them from gaining any power. He lost a war with Sweden from 1590 to 1595, but improved relations with the Scandinavian lands after that.

Boris Godunov

But a famine at the dawn of the 17th Century killed nearly a million people, and social issues became desperate. Pretenders to the throne, each known as "the False Dmitry," appeared, and were defeated. On April 23, 1605, Boris died of a stroke, at 52, after ruling Russia for 24 years. A little over a month later, Boris' son, who took the throne as Czar Feodor II, was assassinated. He was only 15. The Time of Troubles continued until 1613, when Michael Romanov was elected Czar, founding a dynasty that lasted until 1917.

Alexander Pushkin was born on June 6, 1799 in Moscow. Considered the founder of modern Russian literature, he was born into a noble family on his father's side, but his great-grandfather was an African general who was kidnapped by the Ottoman Empire, and freed by the troops of Czar Peter I, a.k.a. Peter the Great, another of the occasional modernizers that Russia needed.

His 1817 poem "Ode to Liberty" became popular, but got him exiled by Czar Alexander I. He wrote Boris Godunov in 1830, but it wasn't staged. He wrote Eugene Onegin in 1832, and it, too, eventually became a popular opera, composed by Pyotr Tchiakovsky and first staged in 1879.

Alexander Pushkin

On February 10, 1837, Pushkin was killed in a duel with Georges-Charles d'Anthès, a French officer in the Russian army, who had slept with Pushkin's wife, Natalia. He was 37 years old, a blow to Russian writing. To put this in perspective, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was 15 years old, and Leo Tolstoy was 8, so it would be a while before they became acclaimed writers.

In a 1994 interview with Bill Moyers for PBS, folksinger Pete Seeger ranked Pushkin with William Shakespeare and 19th Century Cuban martyr José Martí as 1 of the 3 greatest poets of all time.

Modest Petrovic Mussorgsky -- apparently, the Eastern Orthodox Church used "Modest" as a name for saintly people, the way some old-time Popes were named "Pius" or "Innocent" -- was born on March 21, 1839. 2 years after Pushkin's death, in Karevo, Russia. He specialized in works based on Russian history, so Boris Gudunov was a natural for him. Later in 1874, he composed his best-known work, the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition.

He became known as one of "The Five," "The Mighty Five" or "The Mighty Handful," composers who lived in St. Petersburg and sometimes collaborated: Their leader was Mily Balakirev, and the others were César Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin.

Mussorgsky was the 1st of the Mighty Five to die, on March 28, 1881. Borodin followed in 1887, Rimsky-Korsakov in 1908, Balakrirev in 1910, Cui in 1918.

The Mariinsky Theatre opened in 1860, and was known as the Kirov Theatre during the Soviet era. It continues to host classical music performances, including the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Mariinsky Opera and the Mariinsky Ballet.

In the Bullwinkle cartoons, the male spy was named Boris Badenov, in connection with Boris Godunov. The female spy was Natasha Nogoodnik.

In a 2016 episode of Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff, himself of Russian descent -- the title character of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich has the surname Shukov -- played Ivan the Terrible in a "battle royale" that also included Zach Sherwin as King Alexander III of Macedonia, a.k.a. Alexander the Great; "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as King Frederick II of Prussia, a.k.a. Frederick the Great; Mike Betette as Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, a.k.a. Pompey the Great; and Meghan Tonjes as Empress Catherine II of Russia, a.k.a. Catherine the Great. The series has never used Godunov, Pushkin or Mussorgsky as a character.

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January 27, 1874 was a Tuesday. There were no scores on this day: Baseball and football were out of season, hockey barely existed, and basketball wouldn't be invented for another 22 years.