Katia Kabanova

As much in love with life as she is incapable of breaking the social ties that hold her prisoner, Katia Kabanova is a caged bird who dreams of spreading her wings to sample the pleasures of freedom.  After an arranged marriage with a spineless husband, the attractive Kàtia must suffer the lack of love of a mother in law who runs the house with an iron hand. Having succumbed to the charms of a suitor during her husband’s absence, she chooses suicide rather than to suffer the disgrace of an adulteress who must flee from home to build a new life for herself.  We still remember Janácek’s « The Clever Little Fox » directed by André Engel. A workshop with young opera singers at the Royaumont Foundation unites them again in « Kàtia Kabanovà », one of Janácek’s most popular operas. More than just putting on a show, the aim of this production under musical direction of Irène Kudela, with piano as the only accompaniment, is to give us the sense of what an adventure it is for these young voices to take on a complete role for the first time. The freshness of the discovery of the others and of oneself at dawn of a life full of promises.