{"id":23984,"date":"2021-07-26T16:04:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T23:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=23984"},"modified":"2021-10-05T10:20:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T17:20:39","slug":"katya-kabanova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/katya-kabanova\/","title":{"rendered":"Katya Kabanova: a review by Victor Cordell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Phil Skinner as Dikoj, Kristin Clayton as Kabanicka, Alex Boyer as Tichon, Carrie Hennessey as Katya, Sarah Coit as Varvara, Chad Somers as Kudrjas. All photos by Cory Weaver.<\/p><\/div>\n

For several seasons, the innovative and peripatetic West Edge Opera has performed at various historic, industrial, and sometimes noisy venues, all with unsloped \u00a0seating.\u00a0 This season, they have moved outdoors to the glorious Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda.\u00a0 Its tiered seating provides comfortable sight lines that are greatly welcomed, not to mention a spectacular backdrop of golden hills with green riparians from its setting in the Siesta Valley.\u00a0 Many thanks to California Shakespeare Theater, which holds a long-term lease on the venue.\u00a0 Cal Shakes has facilitated other companies performing at this wonderful outdoor arena in its \u201cSeason of Shared Light,\u201d providing a safer haven from the pandemic than indoor spaces.<\/p>\n

In keeping with its tradition of producing operas that open new horizons for much of the audience, West Edge\u2019s 2021 Festival commences with Leo\u0161 Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s 1921 masterpiece, \u201cKatya Kabanova.\u201d\u00a0 A stellar cast led by soprano Carrie Hennessey turn in outstanding performances to make this a compelling opera experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Carrie Hennessey as Katya, Christopher Oglesby as Boris.<\/p><\/div>\n

Until recent times in the United States, Jan\u00e1\u010dek was a known but rarely performed composer, limited largely because of the difficulty of casting opera in Czech.\u00a0 However, \u201cKatya Kabanova\u201d is exemplary of his searing dramas about common people who sing with the vocabulary, style, and rhythms of natural language, creating an authenticity that has found audiences.\u00a0 His eclectic, somewhat dissonant 20th<\/sup> century musical style which draws heavily on folk music, especially Moravian, has created demand.\u00a0 Although the format of \u201cKatya Kabanova\u201d is through-sung, it does contain some notable arias.<\/p>\n

The opera is based on a Russian play, Nikolayevich Ostrovsky\u2019s \u201cThe Thunderstorm.\u201d \u00a0However, its passion also draws from Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s own unrequited love for a married woman, like Boris\u2019s love for Katya in the opera.\u00a0 Needless to say, social convention in small town Russia in the 19th<\/sup> century was more restrictive than current day.\u00a0 It bears noting that moral turpitude (if one even wishes to classify \u201cillicit\u201d affairs as such) derives not from possessing thoughts about socially-unacceptable deeds, but rather by the failure to prevent thoughts from translating to action.\u00a0 In some cases, temptation is all but unavoidable.<\/p>\n

Katya is a tragic figure. She is a young, attractive woman, caught in an unhappy marriage to Tichon. \u00a0He is not inherently evil, but suffers under the thumb of his domineering and socially-rigid widowed mother, Kabanicka, who makes life hell for the free-thinking Katya.\u00a0 In the critical event of the narrative, the mother forces Tichon to go on a long business trip.\u00a0 Katya knows that she will be tempted to make love with Boris if Tichon leaves and begs the husband to either stay home or take her with him.\u00a0 He argues that his mother gives him no choice and denies her.\u00a0 His absence marks the descent into Katya\u2019s devastation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kristin Clayton as Kabanicka, Alex Boyer as Tichon.<\/p><\/div>\n

It is good fortune that General Manager Mark Streshinsky and Music Director Jonathan Khuner had a history with Carrie Hennessey through her playing the lead in the company\u2019s 2014 \u201cEnd of the Affair.\u201d\u00a0 From her resum\u00e9, it isn\u2019t apparent that she would be up to a demanding role of the magnitude of Katya.\u00a0 Yet she totally commands it.\u00a0 Dramatically, she captures the many emotions of the desperate young woman.\u00a0 Musically, she captures those moods through the full vocal range and in both lyric and dramatic voicings.\u00a0 These contrasts are particularly well expressed when she is conflicted, as when she first meets Boris and admits both her love for him along with her guilt and wishing to die.<\/p>\n

Other performers are superb as well, starting with Kristin Clayton\u2019s appropriate harshly-delivered depiction of the demanding Kabanicka.\u00a0 The two men in Katya\u2019s life are represented by two clarion tenors, Alex Boyer as her husband Tichon and\u00a0 Christopher Oglesby as the lover Boris.\u00a0 Booming baritone Phil Skinner, delightful mezzo Sarah Coit, and bright tenor Chad Somers also provide appealing turns.<\/p>\n

The opera is set \u201cwith a nod to 1950s California.\u201d\u00a0 A few furniture pieces are consistent with midcentury modern design, but d\u00e9cor features like sepia-colored prints and an antimacassar don\u2019t fit that period.\u00a0 In any case, the predominance of institutional green wall coloring is dreary.\u00a0 A true representation of the 20th<\/sup> century, perhaps bright looking in contrast to the dark action of the opera might be interesting, but otherwise full-on traditional version would work well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Coit as Varvara, Chad Somers as Kudrjas.<\/p><\/div>\n

The orchestra endures somewhat daunting conditions, placed completely under the stage with only a small aperture onto the apron.\u00a0 Amplification is required to produce satisfactory volume (though singers voices come through with great power and clarity without mics).\u00a0 On opening night, the striking introductory sequence with a deep and long held chord followed by a brief melody and timpani motif was muffled and almost lost, perhaps because the sound controls hadn\u2019t yet been optimized. \u00a0Overall, the orchestra seemed to fare better when the instruments\u2019 soundings had greater separation, but they occasionally seemed a little out of sync and tune during tracts demanding greater unison.<\/p>\n

In sum, with \u201cKatya Kabavona\u201d\u2019s powerful score and intense drama, Jan\u00e1\u010dek expressed his full maturity in the vocal genre.\u00a0 It is a classic, and West Edge\u2019s production is well worth seeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cKatya Kabanova,\u201d composed by Leo\u0161 Jan\u00e1\u010dek with libretto by Vincenc \u010cervinka is produced by West Edge Opera and plays at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, Orinda, CA through August 5, 2021.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For several seasons, the innovative and peripatetic West Edge Opera has performed at various historic, industrial, and sometimes noisy venues, all with unsloped \u00a0seating.\u00a0 This season, they have moved outdoors…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[664],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-victor-cordell"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"