"BIRDS will sing as they fly above me where I am buried, and flowers will blossom there..." Few operas, surely, are blessed with plots as uncluttered as of Leos Janacek's lyrical Katya Kabanovd one girl, two guys, death by drowning. No prizes for guessing who dies, but here's a clue - it isn't either of the guys.
Unhappily married to a weak husband, Tichon, whose mother makes her life a misery, Katya falls into the arms of Boris while Tichon is away on a business trip, but is tortured by guilt, confesses everything, and ends up in the waters of the Volga.
Janicek was a big fan of Madama Butterfly, and apparently modelled his doomed heroine on Puccini's, but there is nothing exotic about Kitya's tragedy - it is the ultimate domestic affair, conducted the claustrophobic rural atmosphere familiar from other Janicek operas, particularly Jenufa, and with more than a whiff of Flaubert's Madame Bovary in its grim depiction of the tedious side of village life.
Like Emma Bovary, Katya betrays a bad husband with a worse lover, and suffers the consequences unlike Emma, however, Katya is innocent, sensitive and thoughtful, and Janicek surrounds her with music of an uncommon radiance and power.
Opera Theatre Company has chosen Kdtya Kahanovi for its autumn tour, which opens tonight in the Theatre Hall, Gorey and continues to the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny (Tuesday), Back Stage Theatre, Longford (Thursday), Town Hall Theatre, Ballinasloe (21st), Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin (24th, 25th, 27th and 28th), Hawk's Well Theatre, Sligo (October 1st), The Mall Theatre, Tuam (3rd), An Halla, Inis Oirr (5th), Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick (8th), the Town Hall, Skibbereen (Oct 10th) and Siamsa Tire, Tralee (October 12th).
The role of Kitya will be sung by Regina Manley, with Iain Paton as Boris, James Nelson as Tichon and Frances McCafferty as the wicked mother in law Kabanicha; Declan Kelly and Kathleen Tynan sing the opera's other pair of lovers, Kudryash and Varvara.
Dearbhla Collins is the pianist for the production, which is directed by James Conway, designed by Frank Conway and lit by Tina McHugh.
