Vienna "Káťa Kabanová" Harnesses Much Needed Sadness

Suicidal tendencies. (Photo: Michael Poehn)

"Conductor Franz Welser-Moest, who has described the score of Katya Kabanova as 'turbulent waters' full of 'very many cliffs,' navigated admirably through the musical torrents. That’s not easy in a work where one chord oftens seems internally torn as it expresses the conflicting emotions of as many as three singers on stage. On stage, Janice Watson was heartbreakingly authentic as Katya, with plenty of the range and volume that this opera calls for. Klaus Florian Vogt kept pace as Boris, powering up his delivery to Wagnerian strength as required. Deborah Polanski was a wonderful Kabanicha, the uber mother-in-law whose oppressive domination of Katya — and suppressed sexual desire for her own son — drives Katya first to adultery and then to suicide. Her look of triumph as she bends over Katya’s dead body to slip the wedding ring off her finger and on to her own is one of the many highlights of the less than two-hour performance." [Source]

Happy Birthday: Janice Watson

"Jewel Song" Faust (Gounod)
"Es gibt ein Reich" Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss)
"Embroidery Aria" Peter Grimes (Britten)

A regular guest with both English National Opera and Welsh National Opera, Janice Watson has sung with the opera houses of Lyon, Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Santa Fe, Milan, Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera. Her engagements include the Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier) for English National Opera, Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos) for Welsh National Opera, Katja Kabanova for both La Scala Milan and the Royal Opera, and Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire’at the Theater an der Wien. A favorite of the Santa Fe Opera, she has sung in Daphne (1996), Arabella (1997), Idomeneo (1999) and Salome (2006). Recent engagements include Alice Ford (Falstaff) for Welsh National Opera, Elisabeth (Tannhauser) for Opera Australia, Ellen Orford ('Peter Grimes') in Naples, Leonore (‘Fidelio’) in Beijing, and Elisabetta (Don Carlos) for Opera North. Current engagements include Ellen Orford in Turin, Elsa (‘Lohengrin’) for the Hamburg Opera, Katya Kabanova in Oviedo, Madame Lidoine (Les dialogues des Carmélites) in Valencia, and Leonore for the Brighton Festival. [Source] Read an extended interview with the soprano done by Musical Criticism by clicking here. A complete discography after the jump.