LEOŠ JANÁČEK (1854-1928)

Katya Kabanova

 

Cheryl Barker (soprano) Jane Henschel (mezzo-soprano) Victoria Simmonds (mezzo-soprano) Kathleen Wilkinson (mezzo-soprano) Claire Hampton (soprano) Robert Brubaker (tenor) Peter Hoare (tenor) Peter Wedd (tenor) Owen Webb (baritone) Gwynne Howell (bass) Sian Meinir (mezzo-soprano) Philip Lloyd-Holtam (tenor)

 

Chorus of Welsh National Opera, Orchestra of Welsh National Opera / Carlo Rizzi

 

Janáček wrote that Katya Kabanova, his sixth opera, was ‘one of my most tender works’, and his score contrasts extreme beauty with fateful oppression to wonderful emotional and passionate effect. Katya was partly inspired by Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, but perhaps more significantly by the young Kamila Stösslová with whom Janáček had become infatuated. He seemed to model his portrait of Katya on Kamila and in fact dedicated the opera to her. 

 

The tragic libretto portrays a woman driven to despair and suicide by her husband and monstrous mother-in-law. The result is a deeply moving, intensely lyrical work, as engaging in the beauty of the vocal and orchestral writing as in its story – which also revealed the tragedy of Slavic provincial life, of which Janáček was only too well aware: ‘There is much sadness and Slav tenderness and depth of feeling in it. May I find the right way to express it with equal intensity’, wrote Janáček on The Storm, the Ostrovsky play that was his source for Katya Kabanova. 

 

Katya Kabanova is performed here with Cheryl Barker as Katya reprising her performance in the 2004 Welsh National Opera production. Jane Henschel sings the chief persecutor, Kabanicha, Robert Brubaker is Katya’s lover, Boris, while the Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera are conducted by Carlo Rizzi. Cheryl Barker is well known for her roles in Janáček operas and Robert Brubaker performs Boris on a regular basis. Carlo Rizzi is a conductor at The Metropolitan Opera, New York, The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Opéra national de Paris – Bastille, Zurich Opera and at Teatro alla Scala in his home town Milan. This is his debut on Chandos. 

 

Reviews of Welsh National Opera’s 2004 performances of Katya Kabanova

Cheryl Barker’s Katya is a huge achievement, rapturously sung, pertinently acted…

Venue Magazine

 

Cheryl Barker played and sang Katya to perfection…

Cornish Guardian

 

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