MUSIC
BORIS CRISTOFF'S Godunov at Covent Garden was a most remarkabk and beautiful example of the musical-drama art. His voice is fine without being outstanding in itself, either in quality or volume ; at least that was the impression I got. But he subordinated all purely musical effects so entirely to the dramatic that it was difficult to judge the voice as such. This subordination was in the spirit of Mussorgsky, even when it was exaggerated. Boris's death scene was whispered, muttered, sung below the breath and lost thereby in purely musical beauty ; but its dramatic power was overwhelming. From his first appearance Boris Cristoff gave an " interior " interpretation of the part ; he was a stricken soul, an uneasy conscience incarnate and very soon a neurotic on the verge of breakdown and seldom if ever gave the impression of an all-powerful Tsar. His inner conflict absorbed him so entirely that it was difficult to think of him as concerned with politics or government. This was a weakness ; but the interior drama was so gripping and so convincing, expressed with such musical and dramatic art, that it made the whole evening memorable.
Many of the anomalies and vulgarities of the production remain uncorrected. Thus the pathetic little crowd of women who repre- sent the Russian people at Boris's Technicolor coronation remain with their eyes fixed on the conductor even when showered with largesse. The tavern hostess still plucks a duck because she sings a folk-song about one (would the singer of our own "The hares on the moun- tains" fondle, or set about jugging, one ?), and Grishka waits to escape until his whole description has been read, although all the company have their backs to him and he could slip away at the beginning. Marina still sits in a coronet, with a looking glass, .on what seems to be Salisbury Plain. But at least the ghosts of Boris's victims no longer appear, and only the Pretender's spike-helmeted soldiers, who refuse to leave the stage to the Simpleton, prevent the last scene from being really excellent. It would be interesting to know how many people regretted M. Cristoff singing in RUS.11Jn. Other visitors included the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Pascal String Quartet. The orchestra under Hugo Rignold played Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin with a fine finish, and accom-. panied Dame Myra Hess in the Schumann concerto most sensitively ; but Till Eulenspiegel got out of hand. M. Pascal and his companions played Roussel's quartet very well, with all the intelligence and dis- tinction that it needs ; and they made a pleasant but rather uninteresting quartet by Jean Rivier sound probably better than it is. Their Ravel was less successful, and the first movement especially
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