Dan Relaxation
The diva turns 65 in the present day!
Chris’s Cache celebrates Karita Mattila, one in all its favourite singers, in a particular double-bill that includes the soprano performing Janáček, one in all her signature composers. Please discover two performances of Káťa Kabanová, one during which she performs the title function, plus a later one that includes Mattila in her later Fach as Kabanicha tormenting Eva-Maria Westbroek as Káťa.
For causes I don’t completely bear in mind, I used to be in a funk throughout December 2004 and utterly missed seeing Mattila carry out Káťa Kabanová on the Met: a kind of nice regrets all of us really feel after we later notice we missed one thing particular.
Káťa is an excellent work that isn’t revived typically sufficient. Many corporations get round to Její pastorkyňa (aka Jenůfa) which I suppose fills their Czech quota. I attended the Met’s premiere of that work again in 1991, a Jonathan Miller manufacturing that lastly introduced Gabriela Beňačková to the Met. It was additionally the opera during which Beňačková first carried out within the U.S., a 1979 night with Opera Orchestra of New York that one can hear right here.
Though Káťa contained an amazing function for Mattila, I perceive that later Kabanicha didn’t show nearly as good a match for her as Kostelnička in Jenůfa bas been. At this time’s Berlin efficiency on the Berlin Staatsoper might doc her solely performances within the function.
A deliberate Met revival of Káťa in 2020 was thwarted by the pandemic closure. I think it was initially scheduled for a soprano who had crashed and burned (cough… Opolais…cough) and her alternative was a puzzling, sudden selection. We missed Dolora Zajick’s deliberate Met farewell as Kabanicha, which is a pity. Although the Miller manufacturing is now over thirty years previous, I, for one, nonetheless hope we get one other alternative to expertise it …and Káťa.
Blissful birthday to the best Karita!
Janáček: Káťa Kabanová
Káťa: Karita Mattila
Kabanicha: Judith Forst
Varvara: Liora Grodnikkaite
Boris: Brandon Jovanovich
Tichon: Jason Collins
Dikoj: Andrew Shore
Conductor: Markus Stenz
Lyric Opera of Chicago
22 November 2009
Broadcast
Káťa: Eva-Maria Westbroek
Kabanicha: Karita Mattila
Varvara: Anna Lapkovskaja
Boris: Simon O’Neill
Tichon: Stephan Rügamer
Dikoj: Pavlo Hunka
Conductor: Thomas Guggeis
Staatsoper Berlin
10 October 2019
In-house recording
Each recordings of Káťa may be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio participant above and the ensuing mp3 file will seem in your obtain listing.
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Christopher Corwin
Christopher Corwin started writing for parterre field in 2011 beneath the pen title “DeCaffarrelli.” His work has additionally appeared in , The New York Instances, Musical America, The Observer, San Francisco Classical Voice and BAMNotes. Like many, he got here to opera by way of the Saturday Met Opera broadcasts which he started listening to at age 11. His specific enthusiasm is seventeenth and 18th century opera. Since 2015 he has curated the weekly podcast Trove Thursday on parterre field presenting dwell recordings.
