Author: Emil Lazarian

25 MEMBERS OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMISSIONS RETRAINED UNDER OSCE PROGRAM
ARKA News Agency
June 28 2005
YEREVAN, June 28. /ARKA/. Twenty-five members of standing
commissions of the Armenian Parliament have been retrained under
the OSCE-implemented program. The press service of the OSCE
Yerevan office reports that certificates have been issued to all
the participants. Head of the OSCE Yerevan office, Ambassador
Vladimir Pryakhin pointed out that it is the second year since the
office has been organizing training courses aimed at improving the
professionalism of the RA Parliament’s standing commissions. “We
are sure that professional improvement is the best contribution to
the future of Armenia’s Parliament, and the OSCE office is ready for
further cooperation,” he said.
The retraining course held on June 1-27 was intended for experts
of three standing commissions of the Armenian Parliament. The
participants can share experience in the Parliament of one of the
OSCE member-countries. P.T. -0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EurasiaNet Organization
June 28 2005
ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN DIFFER OVER RUSSIAN BASE PULL-OUT
Samvel Matirosyan and Alman Mir Ismail 6/28/05
Armenia and Azerbaijan are reacting differently to the Russian
withdrawal from bases in Georgia. Politicians and pundits in Azerbaijan
view the move as a potential security threat due in large part to
Moscow’s decision to transfer to Armenia a portion of the military
hardware now in Georgia. Armenian experts, meanwhile, downplay the
significance of the transfer, contending that it does not alter the
existing strategic balance. After years of wrangling, Russian and Georgian officials announced
May 30 that the withdrawal of Russian troops and materiel from the
Caucasus country would be completed by 2008. [For background see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. Russia’s pull-out from its two remaining
bases on Georgian territory – in Batumi and Akhalkalaki — began
June 1 with the dispatch of a 15-car train from Batumi to Armenia,
loaded with ammunition, various equipment and anti-aircraft
weapons. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. Political analysts have spent the weeks since the
announcement of the base-withdrawal deal speculating about its
geopolitical ramifications. In particular, many have wondered
whether the Russian move could influence negotiations to end the
Armenian-Azerbaijani struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh. [For background
see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Moscow has mounted diplomatic offensive to dispel the notion that its
actions could rearrange the geopolitical order in the Caucasus. [For
additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. “The
withdrawal of part of Russian arms from Georgia to Armenia will not
change the balance of forces in the Transcaucasus,” Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists on June 14. Russian defense officials insist that transferred arms and equipment
will be kept in storage at Russia’s 102nd base in Gyumri, in northern
Armenia, stressing that the Armenian military will not have access
to the weaponry. “We are going to closely keep the limits set up
by the [amended 1999] treaty on conventional armaments in Europe,”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said during a June 6 news
conference, Rosbalt news agency reported. According to Ivanov, most
of the military equipment and cargo now in Georgia will be shipped
back to Russia from Black Sea port city of Batumi. News of the withdrawal from Georgia initially was applauded in
Azerbaijan, where official at first interpreted the move as a sign
of declining Russian influence in the Caucasus. But approval quickly
transformed into doubt following the announcement that a portion of
the Russian arms and equipment would be shifted to Armenia. On May
23, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry sent a protest note to Moscow,
demanding an explanation for the transfer. “From the point of view
of the law, the transfer of arms from one base to the other is quite
normal. It concerns Armenia and Russia. However, the South Caucasus
requires demilitarization. Therefore, there is no need to keep in the
region tanks and other heavy military equipment. We do not consider
it necessary,” Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists,
Turan News Agency reported. Speaking at a June 25 military academy graduation ceremony, President
Ilham Aliyev indicated that the Russian move could help spur a regional
arms race. He said that Azerbaijani defense spending would increase
to $300 million in 2005, up from last year’s level of $175 million,
ANS television reported. “We had to take appropriate measures,” Aliyev
said, referring to the Russian transfer of materiel to Armenia. “We
did so immediately and increased our military spending. Military
spending will continue to increase in the future.”
“Our army should be strong to solve the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict
over [the breakaway region of] Nagorno-Karabakh,” Aliyev added. Moscow’s statements concerning the transfer do not appear to have
fully reassured the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Alliance members have expressed carefully worded concern about the
pull-out’s impact on the regional balance. “We welcome the withdrawal
of troops. However this step should not affect regional stability
in the South Caucasus,” NATO Assistant Secretary-General for Defense
and Policy Planning John Colton said in Baku on June 27. The defense
alliance plans to raise the issue with Moscow “in the near future,”
the Regnum news service reported Colton as saying. Many Azerbaijani observers now believe that, in deciding to shift
weaponry from Georgia to Armenia, Russia’s primary intention was to
strengthen Moscow’s own geopolitical position in the region, and not
to bolster Yerevan’s strategic situation vis-a-vis Baku. A June 1
commentary published by the independent daily Zerkalo complained that
“Russia demonstrates its unwillingness to significantly reduce its
military presence in the South Caucasus region, including [along]
the borders with Iran and Turkey.” Nasib Nasibli, a political expert
at the Foundation for Azerbaijan Studies, agreed. “This act by Russia
is aimed at preserving their influence in the Caucasus.”
According to the Russian-Georgian withdrawal agreement, at least 40
units of armored equipment, including 20 tanks, are to be removed
from Georgia by September 1. The Azerbaijan-based Turan news agency
published a report stating that up to 40 Russian tanks could be
moved to Gyumri from Akhalkalaki. If such a report proves accurate,
the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced that Baku would consider
implementing “corresponding measures.” Earlier, Azerbaijani officials
stated that they might reconsider the country’s $7 million-per-year
lease of the Gabala radar facility to Russia. [For background see
the Eurasia Insight archive]. Analysts in Yerevan argue that Baku’s concerns are misplaced. “[I]f
we look at the Russian military presence in the South Caucasus. . .the bases in Armenia practically decide nothing, while the radar. station in Gabala, located on the territory of Аzerbaijan,
appears to be of great strategic importance,” said Hayk Demoyan,
an regional political expert at the Caucasus Media Institute. Rather than dwelling on the Russian equipment transfer, Armenia has
tried to concentrate international attention on its expanding ties with
NATO. On June 16, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan presented Armenia’s
Individual Action Partnership Plan (IPAP) to the NATO Council. The
country has since received assurances from US Ambassador to Armenia
Robert Evans that the Russian transfer of arms and equipment will
not preclude further cooperation between Yerevan and NATO. The press service of the Defense Ministry in Yerevan has denied the
existence of any agreement that would give Armenian military forces
access to the arms and equipment at Russia’s base in Gyumri. The
Defense Ministry also insists that no plans or intentions exist
concerning the potential transfer Russian military personnel to
Armenia from Georgia. Despite such assurances, the debate continues in Baku over what
constitutes an appropriate response. Azerbaijani analysts suggest
the most likely counter-move would be a strengthening of Baku’s
relationship with NATO. Some point out that on June 6, Turkey — an
Atlantic alliance member and Baku’s closest ally — announced plans
to allocate $2.1 million to help the Azerbaijani military adopt NATO
military standards. In recent weeks, President Ilham Aliyev’s administration has toned
down its angry rhetoric concerning the equipment-transfer issue. Some
observers suggest that Baku has come to the realization that it
can not stop the transfer. Others say that, with potentially pivotal
parliamentary elections scheduled for November, Aliyev is reluctant to
risk a full-blown dispute with Russia. [For additional information see
the Eurasia Insight archive]. Bilateral ties have been strengthening
since 2000, and Aliyev clearly wants to keep them cordial. “We are
very satisfied with the standard of our relationship, one of strategic
partnership that meets the interests of both Russia and Azerbaijan,”
Aliyev said at an economic conference in St. Petersburg on June 14. Editor’s Note: Samvel Martirosyan is a Yerevan-based journalist and
political analyst. Alman Mir-Ismail is a freelance political analyst
from Baku.

PRESS RELEASE
June 28, 2005
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Contact: Haik Gugarats
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: [email protected]; Web:
Training Courses for Armenian Teachers in the Diaspora
The Armenian Education and Science Ministry is organizing the 2005 annual
Diaspora Armenian Teacher Training Courses in Yerevan, Armenia, on July 25 –
August 27, 2005. The Training Courses are open to faculty of functioning
Armenian-language schools, kindergartens, day schools, and other educational
institutions in the Diaspora.
The 2005 curriculum for the Diaspora Armenian Teacher Training Courses has
been updated, with particular emphasis on teaching methodology. The Training
Courses staff includes educational specialists from Armenia and Diaspora.
Upon completion of the courses, the participants will receive a certificate,
literature, and other educational materials.
The 2005 Training Courses are held under the auspices of His Holiness
Garegin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians. The Holy Etchmiadzin will cover
the room and board expenses of the participants for the duration of the
program. The participants are expected to pay for transportation expenses to
and from Armenia.
The participants of the Diaspora Armenian Teacher Training Courses will have
an opportunity to take part in tours and events, and will be exposed to
cultural life in Yerevan. Those participants who will be in Yerevan during
the first week of September will have an opportunity to observe the classes
in session at the Armenian Schools in Yerevan.
The deadline for submitting applications is July 15, 2005. The application
forms, list of universities and departments, as well as tuition are
available upon request from the Embassy of Armenia, via email:
[email protected] or telephone: 202-319-1976, ext. 348. For further
inquiries about the program, please contact the Armenian Ministry of
Education and Science at +374-10-581391.

French senator calls Armenian genocide vote “historic mistake”
Ekspress, Baku
24 Jun 05
French Senator Ambroise Dupont has said that the French Senate made an
historic mistake by recognizing the alleged genocide of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire in 1915. In an exclusive interview with Azerbaijani
daily Ekspress, the French parliamentarian denied the allegations that
his country is pro-Armenian. ” Our country is pro-Caucasus in the worst
case scenario,” he noted. The following is the excerpt from a report
by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on 24 June entitled “The French
Senate made a mistake” and subheaded “Senator Ambroise Dupont said
in an interview with Ekspress yesterday that the recognition of the
‘genocide of the Armenians’ by the upper house of the French Senate
was an ‘historic mistake'”; Subheadings have been inserted editorially
Unfortunately, politics sometimes work in such a way that historic
mistakes emerge. The French Senate debate of the Armenian genocide
was one of these mistakes. Personally, I have never voted for this,
Ambroise Dupont, French senator, deputy chairman of the Senate’s
France-Caucasus friendship group and chairman of the France-Azerbaijan
parliament group, said in an exclusive interview with Ekspress
yesterday. Senator Dupont is from France’s Calvados region and is
currently visiting Baku to open the Azerbaijani-French business
forum. Dupont does not agree that his country holds a pro-Armenian
position and explains Paris’s passivity in a Karabakh solution in
this way: “We are not judges, but advisors, while Azerbaijan and
Armenia are players.”
Judges and players
[Dupont] A solution to the Karabakh conflict actually depends on the
desire and role of the peoples of Azerbaijan and Armenia, while France
may simple hope that this problem will be resolved peaceably. We are
not judges, simply advisors. There are two players in the conflict
– Azerbaijan and Armenia. A judge may be needed in making certain
decisions. However, the players themselves need to define rules.
[Interviewer] They tend to think in Azerbaijan that France’s sympathy
with the Armenians prevents it from adopting a fair position on the
Karabakh issue… [ellipses as published]
[Dupont] I would not say that France is pro-Armenian. Our country
is pro-Caucasus in the worst case scenario. However, it is true that
I hear more about Armenia in France. In any case, Azerbaijan should
also try to be known better in France.
As for the conflict, the French president and Senate are exerting
more efforts to have the conflict resolved in a peaceful manner.
Granted that several years ago we were living as if nothing had
happened. But now I see that certain efforts are being made. I
understand your emotion. France itself used to be in a conflict with
Germany. It was difficult for us. My mother and all of my brothers
died in that war. However, later France, together with Germany laid
the foundation of the European Union.
I think that is really lacking toward a Karabakh solution is wisdom.
If there is wisdom, the parties can come to a certain agreement. In
any case, I have more hopes now than I had before. France itself is
not different from the other two co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group.
[Passage omitted: on Karabakh debates in French Senate]
Mistake
[Interviewer] Azerbaijan has appealed many times to the parliament
of foreign countries, including France, with the necessary evidence
for an international assessment of the Xocali genocide. What is the
needed to take this matter through the Senate?
[Dupont] We want to see peace throughout in the world. The French
parliament does not discuss such issues.
[Interviewer] But the French Senate tabled the fabricated “genocide of
the Armenians” many times and recognized it… [ellipses as published]
[Dupont] In any case, I never voted for the genocide of the
Armenians. There have been many massacres and acts of genocide
throughout history. We cannot deal with recognizing acts of genocide
all the time. The Senate has different things to do. Unfortunately,
however politics sometimes works in a such a way that historic mistakes
emerge. The French Senate’s debate of the Armenian genocide was one
of these mistakes and this issue is already closed. You need to visit
France and see things there with your own eyes.
[Passage omitted: France’s stand on Turkey admission to EU]
Azeri parliament “the way it is”
[Interviewer] How can France contribute towards Azerbaijan’s
integration into Europe?
[Dupont] All the aspects of Azerbaijani culture need to be known
in France. We are working towards this end. On the other hand, your
embassy in Paris also has a big role to play.
[Interviewer] How does the French government view the democratic
changes in the post-Soviet republics?
[Dupont] Of course, we do not meddle in the internal affairs of
foreign countries. However, the Caucasus has slightly mysterious and
characteristic features for Europe and France in particular. Georgia
saw a revolution, Armenia has a strong diaspora and Azerbaijan has
oil. On the other hand, different cultures are also a symbol of
the region.
[Interviewer] How does the French Senate want to see a future
parliament in Azerbaijan?
[Dupont] I can only express my own opinion here. I want to see
the Azerbaijani parliament the way it is. However, to my mind the
bicameral parliament in France also paves the way for democracy as a
system and it would be better to apply it elsewhere. That is because
a bicameral parliament never depends on the government and MPs are
more independent here.
[Passage omitted: on South Caucasus integration into Europe]

ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN RELATIONS FAR FROM BEING MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL: LPPA LEADER
YEREVAN, JUNE 27. ARMINFO. The talk of mutually beneficial
Armenian-Russian relations is mere speculation, says
Liberal-Progressive Party of Armenia Hovhannes Hovhannissyan.
Today Armenia buys gas from Russia at $73 for 1,000 c m. The
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline project is humiliating for Armenia as the
gas will be supplied exclusively to the Russia-owned Hrazdan Thermal
Power Plant thereby catering for the Gazprom monopoly in Armenia.
Operating on Russian uranium the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will
pose a serious threat to Armenia’s environment in some 2-3 years. The
talks for the construction of the Iranian-Ukrainian gas pipeline via
Georgia will lead to Armenia’s full isolation. So Armenia’s energy
independence has become very much vulnerable.
At the same time Hovhanissyan highly appreciates the EU program
to create alternative energy sources in Armenia. The Japanese loan
for the Yerevan Thermal Power Plant modernization is the first step
towards secure energy in the country.
Since 2002 ArmRosgazprom has purchased gas at $54 for 1,000 c m selling
it to the consumer for $73. The world gas price is $160 for 1,000 c m.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijan, Armenia agreed on two more issues – Azeri foreign minister
Assa-Irada
27 Jun 05
Baku, 27 June: “We managed to come to an agreement on two issues of
principle with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan in Paris,”
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has told Assa-Irada.
Mammadyarov did not specify what they had agreed on, saying that the
sides had agreed to keep it confidential. He also said that despite
the progress in the talks, the sides had not yet been able to achieve
agreement on certain issues, he said.
“Of course, we will discuss these issues in the future. We will decide
what we should do to achieve our goals,” Mammadyarov said. He went on
to say that the talks were currently being conducted in keeping with
the principles defined by the [Azerbaijani and Armenian] presidents
in Warsaw and the foreign ministers were trying to reach consensus
on those principles.
[Passage omitted: the ministers had a brief unofficial meeting in
Brussels]
Mammadyarov said he could not confirm Deputy Foreign Minister Araz
Azimov’s forecast that the peace process might yield results in August.
“It is very difficult to name a date for this. To be honest, I do not
believe that the talks will give results by late August. Much will
depend on the presidents’ meeting in Kazan in late August,” he said.
[Passage omitted: the Armenian side denies reports about the ministers’
unofficial meeting in Brussels]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR TO EGYPT PRESENTED CREDENTIALS TO PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK
Pan Armenian News
28.06.2005 05:10
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian Ambassador to the Arabic Republic
of Egypt Ruben Karapetyan presented credentials to President Hosni
Mubarak, reported the Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Armenia. In the course of the meeting R. Karapetyan conveyed
R. Kocharian’s greetings to H. Mubarak and assured that he will do
his best to further develop and strengthen the Armenian-Egyptian
mutually beneficial cooperation. In his turn the Egyptian President
asked to convey his regards to his Armenian counterpart and wished
R. Karapetyan success in his service.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Moving Russian military equipment to Armenia not to affect Karabakh settlement.
ITAR-TASS, Russia
June 27 2005
MOSCOW, June 27 (Itar-Tass) – The redeployment of Russian military
equipment from Georgia to the Russian Defence Ministry’s base
in Armenia will not change the balance of forces in the Karabakh
conflict zone and will not hamper the quest for the ways of peaceful
settlement. Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Committee for
International Relations of the State Duma lower house of parliament,
expressed his confidence in this on Monday.
He said, the Russian military bases are being speedily removed from
the Georgian territory. The Russian military base situated in Gyumri,
in the Armenian territory, is a possible place to which armaments
and equipment can be moved from Akhalkalaki base.
“If Azerbaijan offered an opportunity for the deployment of military
forces in its territory, Moscow would consent to this,” Kosachev
said. “Therefore, the redeployment of Russian military forces will
not affect the prospects for erasing tension in relations between
Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he said.

MEETING WITH NKR PRESIDENT
Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
26 June  05
On June 21st NKR President Arkady Ghukassian met with the
parliamentarians of the Moldavian Republic of Transdnestr Vallery
Babcinetsky and Claudia Treskova who monitored the NKR parliamentary
election. During the talk the observers shared their impressions
from the election. Pointing out the high level of polls, they agreed
to the evaluations of the observers from the USA, European and CIS
countries. The observers said they believe that the NKR authorities
and people will remain committed to the supreme goals of freedom and
democracy. Arkady Ghukassian thanked the observers for their work and
wished the people and authorities of Transdnestr peace and prosperity.
AA.
26-06-2005
–Boundary_(ID_cj3B27IoR90Pz5nUv+jZzQ)–

The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
June 22, 2005 Wednesday
A young and ambitious ‘Boris’
by Andrew L. Pincus
LENOX
If you know opera, you know “Boris Godunov.” But do you know “Boris
Goudenow”? Not likely. Johann Mattheson’s opera, composed 159 years
before Mussorgsky’s dark-as-night portrait of the Russian czar, is
just now receiving its world premiere, 295 years after its birth.
Call it a prequel from a time before there were prequels. The Russian
Mussorgsky’s tragedy picks up where the German Mattheson’s happier
work from 1710 leaves off: with Boris’ 1598 coronation as czar of
Russia.
Mussorgsky’s Boris, racked by hallucinations and guilt, ultimately
goes mad and dies.
Fresh from its premiere run in Boston, the Boston Early Music
Festival’s production of Mattheson’s “Boris” opens the Tanglewood
season in performances at 7 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday. Festival
co-directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs are music directors, and
Lucy Graham is stage co-director and choreographer.
The international cast is headed by Vadim Kravets, a Russian, in the
title role. Ten soloists will be joined by adult and children’s
choruses, a 30-piece baroque orchestra and a troupe of dancers, with
period costumes and sets. If past performances in the festival’s
opera series are any guide, the kind of spectacle beloved by baroque
musicians and audiences will be on parade.
The Mussorgsky and Mattheson operatic portraits are “almost
opposites,” says Stubbs. “With Mussorgsky, you have the dark and mad
side of the story.” In Mattheson, “it’s the ambitious, bright, crafty
young Boris who winds his way to the coronation by a combination of
statesmanship and deceit. It’s a young hero, and the whole opera ends
with the happy coronation of the young hero. The two things are
absolutely like day and night.”
But why, you ask, has a three-centuries-old opera by one of the
leading lights of German baroque music — he was Handel’s mentor —
never been seen before? Only an unstaged performance of a different
edition in Hamburg, Germany, this year preceded the staging here.
The short answer is that the score turned up only a few years ago in
Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. O’Dette and Stubbs came upon it
during their explorations of baroque opera for their biennial Boston
festival.
“Boris Goudenow” is the fifth production in the series [all brought
to the Berkshires] since its inception in 1997 with Luigi Rossi’s
“Orfeo.”
A fuller explanation goes back to 1710, when Mattheson was a leading
composer, singer and conductor — “a star in his own time,” according
to O’Dette — at the Hamburg Opera. Internal difficulties at the
company, including doubts whether the musicians could perform
Mattheson’s “Boris,” denied it a premiere. He left the company and,
while still in his 30s, began going deaf and had to give up
composition and performance.
[Mattheson tells a story about himself: In 1704, after singing the
part of a character who commits suicide in his opera “Cleopatra,” he
went to the harpsichord to conduct the rest of the performance.
Handel, who was in command at the keyboard, refused to yield. The two
men fought a duel in which only a large button on Handel’s coat saved
him from being run through. They apparently reconciled; a year later,
Mattheson sang the leading roles in two Handel operas. ]
Soon after Mattheson’s departure from the opera company, it collapsed
amid financial and political problems. He retired to a life of
contemplation and writing critical and theoretical tomes about music.
His four operas, along with his 27 oratorios and numerous other
works, were forgotten.
We fast-forward now to World War II, when Hamburg Library officials,
knowing their city was about to be bombed, sent their most valuable
holdings to a remote castle near Dresden for safekeeping. When
Germany was defeated, Russian soldiers carted off the trove as booty.
It wound up in St. Petersburg, later to be claimed by an Armenian
scholar for Yerevan.
In 1998, as O’Dette tells the story, the secretary to German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl “phoned the director of the Hamburg Library
and said, ‘Meet me in Bonn tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock with a
tractor-trailer.’ ” There, the Armenian ambassador to Germany
presented the librarian with 42 crates of Hamburg Library holdings
from before the war, including the complete works of Mattheson.
O’Dette and Stubbs learned about the recovered score while doing
research for their 2003 festival opera, Johann Georg Conradi’s 1691
“Ariadne.” Wanting to continue their explorations into the
development of German opera, they settled upon “Boris Goudenow” for
this year’s festival.
A selection of Mattheson’s other works complemented the opera in the
Boston festival, which ended Sunday. The overall festival theme was
“East Meets West: Germany, Russia, the Baltic.”
“What emerges,” says O’Dette, “is a picture of an outstanding
composer who has never been recognized by music history because,
tragically, he became deaf at a young age and had to give up
composing and gave all of his music to the Hamburg Library.” As a
scholar, O’Dette adds, Mattheson “wrote so much that music historians
have focused on all of his books and have neglected to look at his
music before it disappeared. So that now we have to opportunity to
evaluate and enjoy the music of a composer who was considered one of
the great German composers of the early 18th century — in fact, the
person Handel went to Hamburg to study how to compose operas with.”
Mattheson’s operatic style is a mix of German and Italian elements,
with some arias in each language. Not yet in the comedy-free opera
seria style favored by later composers, “Boris Goudenow” has love
interest — three couples, all happily united at the end — and a
comic servant. The highly varied solos and ensemble numbers are
shorter than in later operas.
There is no pretender to the throne driving Boris to madness, as in
Mussorgsky.
“It is in every way a different kind of experience from going to see
Mussorgsky,” says Stubbs. “It doesn’t mean that if you love
Mussorgsky, you’ll hate this, or vice versa. But it is an entirely
different thing and much more like a drama with music, with
spectacular scene endings, with dancing and singing and everything.”
In September, the production moves on for two performances each in
Moscow and St. Petersburg, offering Russians a different perspective
on Mussorgsky’s tormented hero. Other cities in the United States and
Europe have also expressed interest but, paradoxically, the opera
can’t be seen in Hamburg, its birthplace.
The festival organizers have discussed a Hamburg staging with
presenters there, says O’Dette. But “then we were confronted with a
rather obscure and nasty clause in the German copyright law which
enabled a local amateur in Hamburg to make kind of an edition of the
work on his laptop and claim he owns performing rights in Germany to
it.”
A machination worthy of Boris. Litigation may offer a way out.
GRAPHIC: Colin Balzer performs the role of Gavust, a foreign prince,
in the Boston Early Music Festival production of ‘Boris
Goudenow’.Nell Snaidas sings the role of Olga, a Russian princess and
Aaron Sheehan portrays Ivan, a Bojar, in ‘Boris Goudenow’.In the BEMF
production of “Boris Goudenow’, standing left to right, Vadim Kravets
performs the role of Boris Goudenow; Ellen Hargis portrays Irina,
wife of the Czar and sister of Boris Goudenow; Marek Rzepka is Fedro;
and in the background, the chorus of old men.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress