Erica Jeal [Guardian, 29 July 2006]
You would have to go a long way to find a staging as old as the Boris Godunov brought over from Moscow by the Bolshoi Opera for its first Covent Garden visit – or one so steeped in history. It’s a museum piece, but it’s worth the preservation. Boris is the quintessential Russian opera, and Leonid Baratov’s staging is what it has looked like at the Bolshoi since 1948; it’s fascinating to speculate as to exactly who must have seen it.