Composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky Librettist Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky Based On the historical tragedy by Alexander Pushkin and "History of the Russian State" by Nikolai Karamzin Company San Francisco Opera Association Touring Location Los Angeles, CA Venue Shrine Auditorium Season 1956 Language Russian Creative/Crew Conductor William Steinberg Stage Director(s) Paul Hager Designer Leo Kerz Chorus Director Gianni Lazzari Choreographer Willam Christensen Costumers Goldstein & Co. Cast Boris Godunov, Regent of Russia Boris Christoff Fyodor, his son Rosalind Nadell Xenia, his daughter Jeannine Crader Nurse June Wilkins Shuisky Caesar Curzi Shchelkalov George Cehanovsky Brother Pimen Nicola Moscona Dimitri/Grigori Richard Lewis Marina Oralia Dominguez Rangoni Hans Hotter Varlaam Lorenzo Alvary Missail Chris Lachona Innkeeper Katherine Hilgenberg Simpleton Raymond Manton Police Officer Carl Palangi Frontier Guard Desire Ligeti Chernikovsky Louis Quilico Lavitsky Murray Kenig Khrushchev, a Boyar Virginio Assandri First Peasant Peggy Covington Second Peasant Eloise Farrell Third Peasant Edward Lovasich Show Dates Tue, Oct 30 1956, 8pm Time and Place About 1600; Moscow and Lithuanian Frontier Scenes Act I, Scene 1 -- Outside a Monastery near Moscow Scene 2 -- Cathedral Square, Moscow Scene 3 -- Cell in Monastery of the Miracle at Night, six years later Scene 4 -- Inn on the Lithuanian Frontier Scene 5 -- In the Kremlin Act II, Scene 1 -- In Marina's Palace, Poland Scene 2 -- Near Marina's Palace Act III, Scene 1 -- Forest of Kromy near Moscow Scene 2 -- Duma in the Kremlin Legacy Commission Rimsky-Korsakov version Notes Corps de Ballet Pasadena Boys Choristers; John Henry Lyons, Director Phonetic transliteration by Mme. Seraphima Strelova "Newly Revised Production" These performances represented San Francisco Opera's first "Boris" in its original Russian. It also includes an interesting statistic: the only time Hans Hotter ever sang a role in Russian.