Katya: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

By David Gregson

There’s trouble on the banks of the Volga. Tormented by her heartless mother-in-law, bored with her feckless husband and confused by her burgeoning adulterous appetites, poor Katya drowns herself in the river. It’s not a pleasant story, but it’s infinitely more plausible and emotionally compelling than that much-loved fairytale about a royal Chinese serial killer who beheads all her suitors until she falls for one of them. That was the plot of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, San Diego Opera’s successful season-opener. Katya’s tragedy is less familiar, but it forms the basis for Katya Kabanova, a disturbing musical drama by Leos Janácek, one of 20th-century opera’s luminaries.

Although Janácek has long been the rage in the rest of the world, especially England, this month’s staging of Katya Kabanova marks SDO’s first foray into any of the works of this composer, who ranks with the likes of Puccini, Prokofiev, Britten and Richard Strauss, names not new to local opera-goers. Ian Campbell, the company’s general director, has chosen himself to stage this taut chunk of Czech realism adapted from a Russian play, The Storm by Ostrovsky.

Soprano Patricia Racette, SDO’s Mimi in La Bohème (1995) and Love Simpson in Cold Sassy Tree (2001), plays the agonized heroine. A better choice for the leading role could hardly be imagined. As Katya at the Santa Fe Opera last August, Racette delivered a searing psychological portrait matched with flawless vocalism. Her range as a performer is astonishing. She has been an affecting, thoroughly idiomatic Verdi heroine in Luisa Miller for the San Francisco Opera; a heartbreaking Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites at the Met; and a fully dimensional Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust for the Chicago Lyric Opera. Her unforgettable creation of the title character in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline in Santa Fe in 1997 was telecast nationally on PBS.

While Janácek is an immensely popular composer, his musical language is thoroughly unique. Absolutely no other composer sounds quite like him. His style is essentially tonal, not the atonal or “serial” idiom that many listeners often find so alienating. Many people take to this music on first hearing, but—take note—even Verdi benefits from a little preparation.

And speaking of Verdi, SDO’s final performances of Don Carlo are scheduled for March 27 and 30, April 2, 4 and 7 at the Civic Theatre. Many people regard this complex drama of political and romantic intrigue set in 16th-century Spain as Verdi’s greatest opera, and Campbell has assembled an impressive cast featuring tenor Sergej Larin, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, bass-baritone Ferrucio Furlanetto, baritone Rodney Gilfry and mezzo-soprano Mariana Pentcheva.

It would be difficult to go wrong with this one. It’s an Italian opera with absolutely everything, plus extra toppings.

(Katya Kabanova, Apr. 17 & 20 at 7, Apr. 23 at 8, Apr. 25 at 2; Don Carlo, Mar. 27 & 30 at 7, Apr. 2 at 8, Apr. 4 at 2, Apr. 7 at 7, both at the Civic Theatre, Third Ave. & B St., downtown, 619-570-1100, www.sdopera.net.)

	50 People to Watch Party 2012 This year's event held at the Saltbox at the Hotel Palomar on January 20 honoring San Diego's best and brightest.

	47th annual Presentation Tea Photos of the 47th annual Presentation Tea at a private estate in Rancho Santa Fe

	Air Supply: Filling Lungs with Love Photos of an event to raise money for Sharlie Kaltenbach at a private estate in Olivenhain

	Super Stars... Let it Shine! Photos from an evening to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Carlsbad held at La Costa Resort