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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  0095115314524 CHAN 31452 | Janacek: Katya Kabanova
Janacek: | Káta Kabanová Sung in English (translation by Norman Tucker, with revisions by Rodney Blumer and Henrietta Bredin) |
Cheryl Barker (Katya), Jane Henschel (Kabanicha), Robert Brubaker (Boris Grigoryevich), Peter Hoare (Tichon Kabanov), Peter Wedd (Vanya Kudryash), Victoria Simmonds (Varvara), Kathleen Wilkinson (Glasha), Claire Hampton (Feklusha), Owen Webb (Kuligin), Gwynne Howell (Dikoi), Sian Meinir (Zena) Chorus of Welsh National Opera & Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Carlo Rizzi 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 Janácek 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 Janácek on The Storm, the Ostrovsky play that was his source for Katya Kabanova. Only available recording in English “Cheryl Barker’s Katya is a huge achievement, rapturously sung, pertinently acted…” Venue Magazine (on WNO's performances of Katya Kabanova) “…Rizzi illuminates… with almost Puccinian warmth, while keenly evoking the tightening tensions beneath. …Barker's… intense soprano, large for the role, makes Katya sound stronger than usual yet also more neurotic… Her brief over Boris, sung with appropriate charm and vague callousness by Robert Brubaker, and her useless husband Tchon, well sketched by Peter Hoare, are just the agents. Katya's real downfall is the trap set by her oppressive mother-in-law Kabanicha... Jane Henschel sings her with steely hauteur...” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 ***** “Rizzi illuminates Katya with almost Puccinian warmth, whilst keenly evoking the tightening tensions beneath.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2008 “Carlo Rizzi, who conducted the live performances for WNO, is a comparably persuasive Janácek interpreter. As in the English Makropulos Case, the principal singer is Cheryl Barker, fresh, clear and powerful, more girlish-sounding than Söderström. Jane Henschel is outstanding as Marga Kabanova, the rich widow who persecutes her daughter-in-law, wonderfully rich and firm throughout her range. The three tenor roles are exceptionally well taken, even if the contrasts between Robert Brubaker as Boris, Peter Wedd as Kudryash and Peter Hoare as Tichon, husband of Katya and son of Marfa, are not ideally marked. Another outstanding issue in the Opera in English series.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007  BBC Music Magazine
Opera Choice - December 2007 |
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For more recordings of this work, click here. |
Gramophone Awards 2008
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2008
