Káťa Kabanová

In Leoš Janáček’s opera, Kát’a Kabanová, the eponymous heroine is ensnared at the heart of an ominous mesh of relations. Her domineering mother-in-law, Kabanicha, oppresses and controls her son Tichon, whose marriage to Kát’a suffers massively from heteronomy. Because Kát’a finds no fulfilment in this family, she flees and fulfils her unsatisfied erotic desires in an affair with Boris. As composer and librettist, Janáček bundles the plot of the literary template, Alexander N. Ostrovsky’s drama, The Storm. The libretto largely dispenses with the portrayal of the external social circumstances, from whence Kát’a’s essence and choices are decisively determined. Instead, Janáček traces the development of the title character in a psychological-sensitive musical language. Kát’a’s feelings of guilt increase continuously until they discharge into a public confession as an emotional storm. The turbulent and in places fanciful music opens the space for passages of lyrical grace and allows us to experience the essence of the characters. In Kát’a, director Krzysztof Warlikowski sees an outsider, who is denied a life in harmony with her desires, and at the end prefers death over lies. The destructive power of religion behind it all is not only found in a small Russian town on the banks of the Volga in the 1860s, where the libretto places the plot, but rather can also be seen everywhere all over the world.

Director Krzysztof Warlikowski traces the deepest processes of the human psyche in stage designer Małgorzata Szczęśniak’s spaces on the great stages of Europe – the National Theatre in Warsaw, the Opéra national de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and at the festivals in Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence, among others. Eight stagings have already been produced at the Bayerische Staatsoper: Dido and Aeneas … Erwartung, Tristan and Isolde, Salome, Die Gezeichneten, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Eugen Onegin andKabaret Warszawski, as well as György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre at the 2024 Munich Opera Festival. The team also includes choreographer Claude Bardouil, light designer Felice Ross and the video artist Kamil Polak. Marc Albrecht is already familiar with Káťa Kabanová and now returns to this work and to the podium of the Bayerische Staatsorchester, where he has conducted an academy concert and several opera performances - including Hans Werner Henze's Die Bassariden.

ACT ONE

SCENE 1

In a small town on the Volga, Kudrjáš rhapsodises in the community centre about the beauty of the river and nature. Glaša appears rather unenthusiastic. Dikoj accuses his nephew Boris of being idle. Those present stay out of the row. Talking to Kudrjáš, Boris later explains why he must put up with his uncle’s patronising behaviour. His inheritance payment includes the condition that Boris and his sister in Moscow must treat Dikoj with respect. Kudrjáš and Boris respond mockingly to Fekluša’s and
Glaša’s comments about the generosity of their own employing family, the Kabanovs. Kabanicha, the family matriarch, they say, might give to beggars, but torments her own people. Boris reveals to Kudrjáš his love for a married woman from this very
family – Káťa. The Kabanovs’ tense family relations are revealed. Kabanicha orders her son Tichon to obey her and go to the trading city of Kazan to take care of family business. She also claims, that, since he married Káťa, she no longer feels the love he once had for his mother. Káťa assures her mother-in-law that Tichon and she herself hold her in high esteem – this, however, only upsets Kabanicha even more. Tichon, she says, does not discipline Káťa enough, who could take a lover whenever she wanted to. Varvara, the Kabanovs’ foster daughter, accuses Tichon of not defending Káťa from his mother’s hostilities and of turning to drink instead.

SCENE 2

In the Kabanovs’ house, Káťa tells Varvara of her desire to fly like a bird. Before she joined the Kabanov family as Tichon’s wife, she lived carefree and without longings. She liked to go to church, where when she prayed she had the feeling of rising into heaven. Instead of the people all around her, in her ecstatic state she saw flying and singing angels. Now she is plagued by an irresistible desire. Varvara guesses this immediately and advises Káťa to meet the man of her dreams. Káťa begs Tichon not to leave or at least to take her with him. Her husband rejects her pleas, however, and moans about being a slave to his mother’s dominion, which he will be free of at least temporarily on his business trip. Káťa is hurt and foresees a tragedy if Tichon leaves her alone. She implores him to make her swear an oath – she must not speak to or even look at anyone she does not know. Tichon refuses. Instead, his mother, Kabanicha, demands that he leave his wife with strict instructions. In Tichon’s absence, Káťa should honour her like her own mother, and not sit around idly and looking out the window, or “checking out” young people. When Kabanicha orders her son to take his leave of his wife and Káťa throws her arms around his neck, Kabanicha responds by calling her shameless. Tichon leaves.

ACT TWO

SCENE 1

Kabanicha accuses Káťa of not lamenting appropriately about Tichon’s absence. Varvara shows Káťa the key to a door, which she has purloined from Kabanicha without her knowing, and which allows her a forbidden encounter with Boris. Káťa is at first afraid of the temptation and asks for the key to be taken away. She then, however, reconsiders. Just to see Boris, perhaps from a distance, surely can’t be so bad. She eagerly awaits the rendezvous. Drunk, Dikoj shortly after pays Kabanicha a visit during the night.

SCENE 2

Kudrjáš sings a song about two young lovers, while he waits for Varvara. Instead he is met by Boris, who once again raves about his love for Káťa. Although Kudrjáš warns him against ruining Káťa as a married woman with his advances, Boris cannot be dissuaded. When Varvara sings a song, Kudrjáš joins in and the two leave together. Boris reveals to Káťa how much he loves her, and the two come closer. They swear their love for each other.

ACT THREE

SCENE 1

Kuligin and Kudrjáš are talking about the coming storm, from which the walkers are seeking shelter. They are looking at a hell fresco, until the now wet Dikoj rushes in and starts a row again. Kudrjáš complains that in this storm-prone region there are still no lightning conductors. Dikoj is sceptical about these “steel rods”. When Kudrjáš then also claims that storms are a scientifically explainable electrical phenomenon, Dikoj blows his top. A storm, he says, demonstrates God’s power and is his punishment
meted out to humans. The storm eases off and the crowds disperse. Varvara tells Boris a major upset has happened. Tichon has since returned from his business trip, Káťa is not herself and may be about to tell everyone about her affair with Boris. Boris is perplexed. The despairing Káťa joins them and predicts her rapidly approaching death. Kudrjáš and Varvara try to calm her. Finally Káťa can no longer hold back. In front of all present, she confesses she has sinned. Tichon will hear none of it, and Varvara also attempts to defuse the situation. Káťa will not, however, be deterred from making her confession. Immediately after Tichon’s departure, she spent ten full nights “wandering around” with Boris. Just as a new storm arrives, Káťa runs off into it.

SCENE 2

Glaša and Tichon are searching for Káťa along the Volga. Tichon complains that Kabanicha expects him to punish his wife severely for her unfaithfulness – he, however, does not have the heart to do anything that would hurt her. Meanwhile Varvara and Kudrjáš plan their escape to a new life together in Moscow, far from the domineering Kabanicha. Alone, Káťa fantasises about bidding Boris farewell and then dying. She listens to the sounds of the Volga and yearns to be thrown into the river. She places her last hope in Boris. When he meets Káťa, she discovers, however, that Boris’s uncle is to send him to Siberia and that he does not intend to take her with him. The two bid each other farewell. Káťa is already imagining the birds flying to her grave, and plunges into the Volga. Kuligin alerts all those nearby that a woman has jumped into the river. Tichon blames Káťa’s death on his mother. Seeing Káťa’s corpse everyone is horrified – except Kabanicha, who thanks those present for their help.