Which composer wrote the opera Boris Godunov, based on Alexander Pushkin’s historical drama?

Modest Mussorgsky wrote the opera Boris Godunov, based on Alexander Pushkin’s historical drama.

Mussorgsky composed the opera between 1868 and 1870, drawing on Pushkin’s 1825 play and Russian historical sources. The original version was rejected by the Imperial Theatres, partly because it lacked a conventional female lead and ballet opportunities. Mussorgsky revised the work, and the revised version received its first performance in Saint Petersburg on 27 January 1874.

The opera portrays Tsar Boris’s troubled rule and the rise of the pretender Grigory Otrepyev, later known as the False Dmitry. Its distinctive power comes from the contrast between individual psychological pressure and the collective presence of the Russian people. The coronation scene, the scene of Boris’s death, and the orchestral interlude “Dawn over the Moscow River” are among its best-known passages.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov later made a heavily revised version with altered orchestration and structure. For many years that version was more commonly performed, but modern productions often return to Mussorgsky’s original or present multiple versions.