Although I feel somewhat disloyal saying it, this tightly led, taut reading of Káta Kabanová is on a par with Charles Mackerras’ classic set on London with the great Elisabeth Söderström in the title role. Taped live at the l998 Salzburg Festival and performed without intermission, this performance amounts to a true indictment of small-town minds and the sad figure who can only find escape through suicide. The players, obviously interacting in a theatrical situation, play off one another with such urgency that this turns into the aural, operatic version of cinema-verité. Few of the singers are well-known–David Kuebler’s Boris is another vivid portrait in the tenor’s gallery, and Rainer Trost uses his lighter, more innocent-sounding tenor to bring Kudrjas to life. Angela Denoke’s Kata is world class; she sings the text as if born to its rhythms and sentiments, and the middle of her voice, where so much of Kata’s music lies, is rich and full. American mezzo Jane Henschel does not turn Kabanichka into a caricature, rather she presents us with an unyielding, selfish, controlling woman to be feared. The others in the cast are equally committed and, as hinted at above, Sylvain Cambreling gets right to the core of this thorny, tough work, and he is handsomely abetted by the Slovak Philharmonic chorus and Czech orchestra. Fine sound too. A real thrill.
