Katya Kabanova: Brno National Theater

O wydarzeniu

Hear Janáček's powerful dramatic opera in his home town.

Katya Kabanova is the story of a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage who suffers under the constraints of the strict traditions of merchant society in Tsarist Russia. In vain, she longs for love in her suffocating circumstances and ultimately she sacrifices her own life in order to escape. As in his other works, the extraordinary emotional strength of Janáček’s distinctive musical language is expressed here and permeates the entire opera.

Leoš Janáček, the Brno composer, is perhaps the greatest representative of Czech music of the 20th Century, not only in the Czech Republic but in the world. Janáček was always fascinated by Russian culture therefore it is not surprising that two of his greatest operas were based on works from Russian literature: A.N. Ostrovsky’s play, The Storm which was his inspiration for Katya Kabanova and F. Dostoyevsky’s The House of the Dead which became the basis for Janáček’s last opera.