It was the famous critic Vladimir Stasov and a close friend of Modest Mussorgsky who brought the story of Khovanshchina to his attention and who the composer dedicated this work to. Mussorgsky began to compose the opera in the summer of 1872 when Boris Godunov had not been completed. He was engrossed in the new opera and had every reason to say, "I am living in Khovanshchina like I used to be in Boris."
Mussorgsky wrote the libretto on his own without relying on a literary source. The composer deeply studied historical material carefully considering the details of the libretto and individual musical bits. "How many unseen and unheard worlds and lives are being discovered!" admired the composer when he studied the Moscow life of the 17th century reading the history of the Streltsy revolts. Mussorgsky was taken away with the wealth of collected material. Musical and poetic ideas arose in fantasy as one whole.
The plot of the 'popular musical drama' was based on the events of the late 17th century, the confrontation of Russia old and new, the conspiracy of Prince Ivan Khovansky who headed the Streltsy (which literally means "shooters"). The composer approached the chronology in a loose fashion combining the events that actually had sixteen years between them. However, it was not an obstacle for a true depiction of the Russian life.
Mussorgsky wrote in one of his letters that he was possessed with one thought – "to tell people a new word of friendship and love, a direct word and one as wide as the Russian fields, a word resonating with the truth from a humble musician yet a fighter for the right idea of the art." He told the word in his great works among which the popular musical drama Khovanshchina takes one of the first places.
The recording was awarded Prix “Michel Hofmann” du Disque Academie Charles Cros in France in 1976 and the First Prize for the section of foreign recordings in Japan in 1975.
