Classical music and jazz: Preview: EN0 - Kayta Kabanova at London Coliseum
Published: 18 March 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
THE status of Janacek’s lyrical masterpiece Katya Kabanova as one of the most remarkable operas of the 20th century is reaffirmed in a gripping new production put on by the English National Opera at the London Coliseum.
Directed by David Alden, the new Katya complements his hit production of Janacek’s earlier opera Jenufa, his other ENO productions of Peter Grimes and Lucia di Lammermoor being equally successful.
Katya, like Jenufa, was inspired by the Czech composer’s unrequited love for a married woman over many years.
Indeed, the opera has all the hallmarks of a mature man’s fantasies about the intensity of women’s sexual passions, our unfortunate married heroine consumed by her love for an unmarried man.
American soprano Patricia Racette makes for an outstanding Katya in thrall to her sexual appetite not satisfied in the marital bed, yearning for romance while knowing the harsh social consequences of sex outside marriage.
It’s the 1920s, don’t forget, long before the pill and today’s unbridled goings on and lax attitude to marriage.
From the outset, Racette gives a strong portrayal of Katya’s coiled-up sexual intensity giving way reluctantly to her love for unmarried Boris strongly sung by Australian tenor Stuart Skelton and finally to her suicide as she throws herself into the Volga after her love-tryst with Boris.
Partly, she’s driven to her love-death by her tyrannical mother-in-law performed to Hitchcockian perfection by Susan Bickley and she gets little protection from her weak husband Tikhon ably sung by John Graham-Hall.
There are delightful cameo parts. Boris’s uncle, rich merchant Dikoy, is hammed-up no-end by Clive Bayley and young lovers Varvara and Kudrjas – sung by Anna Grevelius and Alfie Boe – are able to flirt, kiss and cuddle without having to end it all by plunging into the Volga.
Janacek’s 100 minutes of tempestuous music, dramatically underpinning our heroine’s doomed love, gets excellent treatment under conductor Mark Wigglesworth.
• Performances at the London Coliseum, St Martin’s Lane, WC2, on March 20, 22, 24 and 27.
Tickets £16-£78. 0871911 0200, www.eno.org