Next February and March the Met Opera will present Borodin's Prince Igor for the first time in nearly 100 years. Base-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov will sing the title role. Besides being the husband of that most dramatic mezzo Olga Borodina, Abdrazakov claims to be a descendent of Genghis Kahn. Maybe the spouse's family tree includes the opera's composer.
The great Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov will head the production team and will also design the sets.
When the Met's GM Peter Gelb spoke about this production last year, he said that Alexei Ratmansky would do the choreography for the famous Polovtsian Dances and that Valery Gergiev would conduct. Now, according to the Met website, Gianandrea Noseda will conduct eight of the nine performances (Pavel Smelkov will conduct one). The choreographer is now TBA instead of Ratmansky.
It's probably too soon to complain, but it sounds like the new Prince Igor is getting less exciting as time goes by.
Dmitri Hvorstovsky magnificently sings this Prince Igor aria in concert on occasion but doesn't perform the opera. Apparently his baritone voice isn't bass-enough to be suited for this particular opera role. It's kind of the same general principle as a dancer needing long, expressive arms and classical hands to be Odette. Last week at Carnegie Hall, Dmitri performed a concert of about two dozen songs – Rachmaninov, Sviridov, and two of his signature Russian folk songs a cappella. It's hard to believe that a voice can be so glorious.