Prologue
1598. Boris Godunov has retired to the Novodievichy Monastery near Moscow. The police force a crowd to beg Boris to become Tsar of Russia. The boyar Shchelkalov announces that Boris still refuses the throne and mourns Russia’s unsolvable misery. A procession of pilgrims prays to God for help. The police warn the crowd to be at the Kremlin the next morning ready to cheer.
The next day, the bells of Moscow herald Boris’s coronation. On a square in the Kremlin, the new tsar, overwhelmed by fear and melancholy, begs God to look kindly on him. He invites the people to a feast. The people rejoice.
Act I
1603. In the Chudov Monastery, the monk Pimen is writing the last chapter of his Russian history. The novice Grigory awakens from a nightmare and expresses his regret at not having tasted glory in war and society. He questions Pimen about the dead Tsarevich Dimitri, rightful heir to Boris’s throne. Pimen recounts the events leading Dimitri’s murder (the assassins implicated Boris before they died) and remarks that the tsarevich would have been Grigory’s age. Alone, Grigory condemns Boris and decides to flee the monastery.
Now on a mission to unmask Boris and impersonate Tsarevich Dimitri, Grigory is trying to enter Lithuania to find support for his cause. At an inn near the border, he falls in with two vagrant monks, Varlaam and Misail, and uses them as cover. No sooner has he asked the innkeeper, who warns that the frontier is heavily patrolled, for directions to the border than a police officer enters with a warrant for Grigory’s arrest. The officer is illiterate, so Grigory reads the warrant, substituting a description of Varlaam for his own. But Varlaam can read. Grigory escapes, pursued by the police.
Act II
In Boris’s apartments, his daughter mourns the death of her fiancé. Boris comforts her tenderly, talks intimately with his son about the succession to the throne and the responsibilities involved, then reflects to himself on the crime that brought him to the throne and the fears that torture him. Shuisky, a powerful boyar, brings news of a pretender to the Russian throne, supported by the Polish court and the Pope. When Boris learns that the pretender claims to be Dimitri, he is deeply shocked, and Shuisky reassures him once again that the real tsarevich was in fact killed. Shuisky leaves and Boris gives way to his terror, imagining that he sees Dimitri’s ghost. Torn by guilt and remorse, he prays for forgiveness.
Act III
Grigory, who now openly claims to be Dimitri, has made his way to Sandomir Castle in Poland, where he hopes to court and win the powerful Marina Mnishek. Marina intends to win Grigory in order to realize her ambition of ascending the Russian throne. But the Jesuit Rangoni has his own plan: Marina must seduce Grigory for the glory of the church, and convert Russia to Catholicism through their union. Grigory awaits Marina in the castle garden, receives assurances from Rangoni of Marina’s love, and finally courts Marina. She rejects his declarations of love until she is sure of his determination to become tsar.
Act IV
In front of Cathedral of St. Basil in Moscow, starving peasants debate whether Tsarevich Dimitri is still alive when they receive the news that his troops are nearby. A group of children torment a Holy Fool and steal his last kopek. When Boris and his court come from the cathedral to distribute alms, the Holy Fool asks Boris to kill the children the way he killed Dimitri. Shuisky orders to seize the Holy Fool, but Boris asks his accuser to pray for him instead. The Holy Fool refuses to intercede for a murderer. When Boris’s entourage passes by and the people disperse, the Holy Fool laments Russia’s dark future.
In the Duma, the council of boyars passes a death sentence on the accused. Shuisky arrives with a report on Boris’s hallucinations of the murdered tsarevich. Boris suddenly storms in, disoriented, and cries out to Dimitri. When he regains his composure Shuisky brings Pimen before the Duma. Pimen tells of a man who was cured of blindness while praying at Dimitri’s grave. Boris collapses. He sends the boyars away and calls for his son. He appoints him heir to the throne, says a fond farewell to the boy and dies.
In a forest clearing near Kromy, an angry mob seizes and humiliates several boyars and police. Varlaam and Misail enter proclaiming Boris’s guilt. The mob reinforces its resolve to tear down the old order, and when two Jesuits appear, at the head of the Polish-Catholic advance, they are attacked and brutalized by the crowd. The fake Dimitri arrives with Marina, Rangoni, and his army. He calls for the cheering people to follow him on his march to Moscow. The Holy Fool remains behind, lamenting Russia’s bleak and uncertain fate.