JANÁCEK : KÁT'A KABANOVÁ

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 24th of September 2011 at 3.03 - 4.50 pm
Sunday 23rd of November 2008 at 3 - 4.50 pm

JANÁCEK: Káta Kabanová, an opera in three acts
Marfa Kabanová........... Deborah Polaski
Tichon Kabanová.......... Marian Talaba
Káta Kabanová............. Janice Watson
Savël Dikoj................... Wolfgang Bankl
Boris Grigorjevic........... Klaus Florian Vogt
Feklusa......................... Donna Ellen
Glasa............................ Juliette Vars
Vána Kudrjás................ Norbert Ernst
Kuligan......................... Marcus Pelz
Varvara......................... Stephanie Houtzeel
Vienna State Opera Chorus & Orch/Franz Welser-Möst  
recorded at the Vienna State Opera by Austrian Radio
This account of the opera is set in New York! See Zerbinetta's review (with pictures).

INTRODUCTION
COMPOSER
CHARACTERS
SYNOPSIS
STORYLINE
BACKGROUND
UNDERGROUND
ANALYSIS
REVIEW (with pictures)



JANÁCEK: Katya Kabanova, opera in three acts
Marfa............................ Jane Henschel
Tichon........................... Peter Hoare
Katerina/Katya............. Cheryl Barker
Dikoi............................. Gwynne Howell
Boris............................. Robert Brubaker
Varvara......................... Victoria Simmonds
Vanya........................... Peter Wedd
Glasha........................... Kathleen Wilkinson
Kuligin.......................... Owen Webb
Feklusha....................... Claire Hampton
Zena............................. Sian Meinir
Passer-by...................... Philip Lloyd-Holtman
Welsh National Opera Chorus & Orch
Carlo Rizzi (Chandos CHAN 3145)
A finalist in the 2008 Gramophone Awards

The story of the opera is Russian (with the Volga River and its vulgar boatmen flowing and rowing by) based on the play Groza (Thunderstorm or Terror) by Ostrovsky; the libretto is in Czech, but here the Welsh National Opera will perform it not in Welsh (the true British language) but in English (Anglo-Saxon-Norman-French). Another of Janáˆcek's operas is Russian: From the House of the Dead (set in Siberia), borrowed from Dostoyevsky.

The names that stand out for me in this recording are Gwynne Howell (I have seen him at the London Coliseum as a Welsh Hans Sachs extolling German culture in English), and Cheryl Barker (who spends a lot of her time at the Sydney opera house).

The heroine throws herself into the Volga in the end, because the world will not allow her to be herself and control her own life. Her name is Katerina Kabanova; the -a on the end of Kabanova shows it is a feminine name; her husband's surname is Kabanov (cp. Pavlov the dog-trainer and Pavlova the swan-imitator); her personal name is Katerina, or Katya/Kat'a (Kate, Kathy).

The recording I have (playing on a turntable right now) features Elisabeth Söderström with a Czech cast, and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Charles Mackerras (a much admired musician throughout my life); he published a corrected score of the work.

The excellent notes from the Metropera archives are available this time, but no libretto.