Description: Tobias Hoheisel's designs and the neurotic flaring colors of Edvard Munch's expressionistic world provide the setting for Nikolaus Lehnhoff's production of Janácek's three-act opera for the lyndebourne Festival Opera. Lehnhoff's sparse and intense production achieves a harrowing realism in its depiction of the suffocating and frustrated emotions that are destroying a straight-laced, middle-class household. Janácek's incandescent score, played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Andrew Davis, has seldom achieved such perfect unity with the dramatic action as it has in this landmark production. There is an extraordinary magnetic tension in the performance of Nancy Gustafson who sings Kat'a, the free spirit visibly consumed by emotions too powerful for the slender frame that contains them. Felicity Palmer plays the Kabanovicka, Kat'a's mother-in-law, a repressed figure of fearsome authority, with complete command over her shuffling, well-meaning son, Tichon, sung by Ryland Davies.
Amazon.com: Kát'a Kabanová, Leos Janácek's 1921 tragedy, is proof if any were needed that tales of personal oppression and turmoil will always make fine raw material for opera composers. Janácek took Ostrovsky's tumultuous drama of infidelity, The Storm, and created a compelling piece in which his music heightens the relationship between the troubled landscape of the heroine's inner mind and the elements doing battle outside.
In 100 minutes of intensely emotional operatic drama, this 1988 Glyndebourne Festival production successfully captures Kabanová's wretched journey from put-upon wife and daughter-in-law to suicide via the ecstasy of a forbidden love affair. At its heart, Janácek's unique tonal score underlines a powerful, almost naturalistic dialogue and exposes the impact of the experiences of Kát'a on her escalating self-destruction. Felicity Palmer's Kabanicha--the mother-in-law from hell and the real instrument of Kabanová's downfall--is curiously remote and muted rather than the domineering figure of fear that we might expect. But the singing, particularly by Nancy Gustafson (tremendously affecting and emotionally convincing in the title role) and Ryland Davies as Kabanová's weak husband Tichon, is outstanding. Gustafson's performance alone makes this essential viewing for anybody with a passion for the great modern soprano roles. --Piers Ford
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - An Intense, lyrical opera
On the DVD the orchestra is really there. I liked the production, and the cast sang and acted well. Perhaps the sound was remixed for the DVD as I could not understand the negative reviews given this ... Read More
Rating: - OK at Best
This production of Katya Kabanova is OK, but not much more than that. It has respectable singers, especially in Nancy Gustafson and Felicity Palmer, but they appear bloodless and dull, and the orchestra, ... Read More
Rating: - musically interesting, but very cold staging
The cold and abstract staging here is clearly meant to reflect the suffocating world of the title character, but two hours of it becomes very disagreable. Better get the CD version: the music is gorgeous and ... Read More
Rating: - Where's the orchestra?
Listening to this over high fidelity stereo loudspeakers, I found this video largely unsatisfying. It's pleasant to look at, and the singing is fine. The main problem is the balance. The orchestra is much ... Read More
- An Intense, lyrical opera
- OK at Best
- musically interesting, but very cold staging
- Where's the orchestra?