In a season of high-profile duds like “Don Giovanni” and “The Ring,” the Met has found a winner in a dark horse, Mussorgsky’s moody “Khovanshchina.”
The opera — loosely translated, the title means “The Khovansky Conspiracy” — is based on the history of Russia in the 1600s, when a coalition of aristocrats and religious fundamentalists rebelled against reforms introduced by the young czar, Peter the Great.
The music, left incomplete at the composer’s death in 1881, features massive choral scenes alternating with brooding monologues for the conspirators. Booming dissonant chords evoke the inescapable power of fate.
Outstanding among the vast cast was Olga Borodina as the mystic Marfa, her velvety mezzo hushed in prayer — when it wasn’t throbbing with passion for her lover, Prince Andrei Khovansky.
Misha Didyk, making his Met debut as that young hothead, wielded a bright sword of a tenor, while bass Anatoli Kotscherga, also new here, thundered as his father, Prince Ivan.
There were strong performances, too, from artists familiar to the Met, particularly baritone George Gagnidze as the creepy secret agent Shaklovity, and bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov, who, as the leader of the orthodox “Old Believers,” poured forth rich tones in prayers for his oppressed brethren.
The chorus and orchestra turned in superhuman performances under the precise but impassioned leadership of Kirill Petrenko, who chose a different version of the final scene: As arranged by Igor Stravinsky, this one brought the opera to an eerily soft conclusion.
True, the late August Everding’s bare-bones production amounts to so much traffic direction. But in every other detail, “Khovanshchina” is worthy of the greatest theater in the world.