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The Russian Kaleidoscope

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UK - The Royal Opera's production of Modest Musorgsky's Boris Godunov directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Antonio
Bryn Terfel as Boris Godunov in the Royal Opera's production of Modest Musorgsky's Boris Godunov directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Antonio Pappano at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. (Photo by robbie jack/Corbis via Getty Images)

Russia: Myths and Realities, Sir Rodric Braithwaite, Pegasus Books, 270 pages.

Claudio Rangoni, bishop of Reggio Emilia and apostolic nuncio to Poland from 1598 to 1606, was not a Jesuit. On that point, Sir Rodric Braithwaite has perhaps drawn too uncritically on Mussorgsky’s great historical opera Boris Godunov, of which he is clearly and rightly a fan. It is a paradigm of something Sir Rodric successfully conveys: While there are facts about Russian history, there is also much that is mythologized.

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