Kátya Kabanová is an opera where the psychodrama and characterisations are so intense that it’s easy to overlook the music when writing about it. But that would be doing a huge disservice to Janáček’s remarkable score and to last night’s performance at Grange Park Opera.
Kátya Kabanová might just contain more gorgeous melodic ideas per minute that any other opera. Where other composers might take an idea and construct a good-sized aria from it, or Wagner might make it the basis of a whole character, Janáček simply moves on to the next one to surprise and delight you. Although the score doesn’t have an exceptional number of instruments by 20th-century standards, they are combined in untold numbers of ways to suit the mood of the moment: a string line in unison with a flute here, a soft, almost inaudible percussion effect there. Stephen Barlow and the Gascoigne Orchestra gave such clarity to each of these textures that the melodies shone in bright and vivid colours, without forgetting to give us plenty of bite for the dramatic moments. The Act 3 storm (from which stems the name of Ostrovsky’s play on which the opera is based) came through in all its shock and awe.
Janáček was also a master of setting the Czech language, and although there wasn’t a single native Czech speaker in the cast, they all need to be complimented on how the words flowed freely and naturally, whether in long-breathed lines or in hard, clipped dialogue.
A principal theme of the opera is a critique of hypocrisy. Susan Bullock gave a blistering performance as Kátya's evil mother-in-law Kabanicha, her voice as powerful as her imperious stage presence, never shrill, but implacable from start to finish. She delivered every one of her increasingly extreme pronouncements with the complete certainty that she would be obeyed; her diversion for a bit of S&M with Clive Bayley’s superbly dislikable Dikój was both gruesomely funny and a crucially important depiction of her hypocrisy; her final words, a mere “thank you, good people, for your assistance”, were the most chilling possible response to a death that she has caused.
Natalya Romaniw brought across the complexity of Kátya’s character: dreamy, passionate, well-intentioned but ultimately a misfit – in short, a vulnerable person powerless in the face of Kabanicha’s spite. Her command of the text and its dramatic shifts was excellent and her voice was attractive apart from a hard edge at fortissimo. I wasn’t quite convinced, however, at the crucial decision moments (Will she or won’t she unlock the gate to meet her lover Boris? Will she stick to her resolve or throw herself into Boris’s arms?).
The supporting cast also gave good performances. Benjamin Hulett, as the teacher Kudrjaš, and Katie Bray, as Kátya’s adopted sister Varvara, gave us lashings of smooth, lyrical beauty, not least in their gentle interlude by the side of the Volga. Both clearly delineated the character traits because of which they contribute to Kátya’s tragedy, Varvara by recklessness and Kudrjaš by inaction. Thomas Atkins and Adrian Thompson were credible as Boris and Kátya’s husband Tichon.
David Alden’s staging is a masterpiece of “less is more”. For Act 1, the stage is blank, slanted with some space at the rear for the comings and goings of the townspeople and a single door labelled “Východ” (exit). For Act 2, a simple wall comes down to seal off the front of the stage, a couple of chairs and a religious painting turn it into an indoor space. For the first part of Act 3, a giant crucifix and some broken windows tell us that we’re in a ruined church. Throughout, video projections of flowing waters give us the theme of the mighty river Volga which is so intrinsic to the atmosphere of the piece. Alden’s handling of his actors is impeccable both in stage movement and gesture.
In sum, therefore, this was an opera performance which was both musically superb and packed an enormous emotional punch, especially considering the work’s modest length. That makes it hugely disappointing that there were a lot of empty seats – this cast and this opera deserve a full house.
