The Bolshoi building, which for many years now has been regarded as one of Moscow’s main sights, was opened on Tsar Alexander II’s coronation. The Bolshoi Theatre is a symbol of Russia for all time. It was awarded this honour due to the major contribution it made to the history of the Russian performing arts.

Ever since Fyodor Chaliapin’s triumphant appearance in the role at the Paris Opera, Boris Godunov is unqualifiedly consid­ered by Russian and world audiences to be the chief personage of Russian opera and its leading potentate.

For the whole world today Mussorgsky’s opera is a key work on the abstract nature of power in general, with no need for concrete historical associations or the literal reproduction of realia.

A crowd throngs by the high walls of the Novodevichy Monastery in Moscow. The boyar, Boris Godunov, has withdrawn to the monastery after the death of Tsar Fyodor, who did not leave an heir.

That Boris will be elected to the throne is a foregone conclu­sion, but he makes a show of refusing the crown so that he is not suspected of wishing to seize power. At the order of a police offi­cer, the people beg Godunov to accept election to the throne.