Less than three years since Jenůfa, Theater Aachen in Aachen, Germany, presented another of Leoš Janáček’s operas – Katya Kabanova. The premiere took place on November 12, led by the theatre’s current music director Justus Thorau. The production was created by the Czech-born director Tibor Torell who presents the story as chain of visions of the heroine, who thus … Read more
In co-production with Opéra de Montréal, Pacific Opera Victoria in the capital of British Columbia, Canada, presented a new production of Janáček’s Jenůfa. It was directed by the internationally acclaimed film director of psychological dramas Atom Egoyan, famed, among others, for Academy Award-nominated The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica (awarded a Golden Palm of Cannes) or the erotic thriller Chloe. Egoyan set the story … Read more
As the last production of the 2017 season, the New Zealand Opera presented Leoš Janáček’s Katya Kabanova. It was in a highly acclaimed production by Australian director Patrick Nolan premiered this February in Seattle (for more information see: https://blog.musica.cz/en/articles/detail/811 ). Founded in 2000, the New Zealand Opera produces three shows each year which are then played in multiple places. Katya Kabanova … Read more
On Saturday 4 March, Staatstheater Darmstadt premiered a new production of Janáček’s Jenůfa. Its author Dirk Schmeding belongs to experienced Janáček-directors; he directed Jenufa already three years ago at Landestheater Detmold and his first work in Darmstadt was The Cunning Little Vixen. His co-workers from the latter production included other members of the present creative team – stage … Read more
One of the four operas presented this season at Opera Santa Barbara, California, is Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen. The new production by Crystal Manich, which is dedicated to both adult and children spectators (which is also one of the reasons why it is sung in an English), received two performances – on 3rd and 5th March at … Read more
One of the ensembles performing at the 45th year of the prestigious international Hong Kong Arts festival (Feb 16 – Mar 18) was the ensemble of the National Theatre Brno. HK Cultural Centre’s Concert Hall, which can host nearly 1,600 visitors, saw them perform four times altogether – twice it was Janáček’s opera The Makropulos Case, then his Sinfonietta, Eternal … Read more
On 25th February, Seattle Opera in Washington, USA, premiered a new production of Leoš Janáček’s Katya Kabanova. The Australian director Patrick Nolan, debutant at this opera house, did not set the story into the tsarist Russia, but into a small American town in the 50s. The heroine is thus presented as a modern woman rebelling against the patriarchal environment … Read more
On 25th February, Seattle Opera in Washington, USA, premiered a new production of Leoš Janáček’s Katya Kabanova. The Australian director Patrick Nolan, debutant at this opera house, did not set the story into the tsarist Russia, but into a small American town in the 50s. The heroine is thus presented as a modern woman rebelling against the patriarchal environment … Read more
On 4th February, Landestheater Coburg, Bavaria, presented a new, radical production of Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen. The Hungarian director duo Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka, who are also responsible for the scenography and costumes, completely abandoned the animal realm and set the story into the world of child prostitution in Eastern Europe. Cages holding underage girls prisoner … Read more
Saarländisches Staatstheater in Saarbrücken, the capital of the state of Saarland, Germany, opened its 2017 opera season with a premiere of Janáček’s Katja Kabanowa. Written in 1921 and based on A. N. Ostrovsky’s play The Storm, the opera got performed here for the first time in history. The premiere took place on January 14. The director Ben Baur set … Read more
