FIRST NIGHT: OPERA

Review: Katya Kabanova at the Grand, Leeds

The acting is superbly believable and the storytelling gripping, but the best reason for catching this revival is in the pit
Katya Kabanova: a searingly honest portrayal of human cruelty and frailty
Katya Kabanova: a searingly honest portrayal of human cruelty and frailty
JANE HOBSON

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★★★★☆
Crushed dreams, intolerance, hopelessness, suicide — yes, Katya Kabanova is just the tonic if you’re depressed about politics, the weather or the cricket. However bad things seem, you probably won’t throw yourself in the Volga like the abandoned heroine of Janacek’s short but intense masterpiece. And more good news: her ill-fated adultery will almost certainly be appearing at a theatre near you, because three productions of the opera are being mounted this spring.

First up is Opera North, with a revival of Tim Albery’s 2007 staging, sung in Norman Tucker’s pungent English translation (“bugger off” is one of the first lines you hear). It is played in the severe 1920s attire of Janacek’s era, with Hildegard Bechtler’s murky green backcloths evoking the fatal swirl