Opera In English - Janácek: Katya Kabanova / Rizzi, Barker

$20.99
Label
Chandos
Release Date
October 1, 2007
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      JANACEK TUCKER
    • PERFORMER
      Barker, Hampton, Howell
    Product Details ⌄
    Works ⌄

    1. Introduction

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    2. Act I Scene 1: Marvellous! Really, just admit it (Kudryash, Glasha)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Peter Wedd, Kathleen Wilkinson

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    3. Act I Scene 1: What d'you think you're hanging around for? (Dikoi, Boris)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Gwynne Howell, Robert Brubaker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    4. Act I Scene 1: Is your mistress at home? (Dikoi, Glasha, Kudryash, Boris, Feklusha)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Gwynne Howell, Kathleen Wilkinson, Peter Wedd, Robert Brubaker, Claire Hampton

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    5. Act I Scene 1: All of them so good and pious (Feklusha, Boris, Kudryash)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Claire Hampton, Robert Brubaker, Peter Wedd

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    6. Act I Scene 1: If you want to obey your mother (Kabanicha, Tichon, Katya, Varvara)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Henschel, Peter Hoare, Cheryl Barker, Victoria Simmonds

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    7. Act I Scene 1: Intermezzo I

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    8. Act I Scene 2: I'm always wondering (Katya, Varvara)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker, Victoria Simmonds

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    9. Act I Scene 2: Madness? Oh, how I wish I really knew (Katya, Varvara)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker, Victoria Simmonds

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    10. Act I Scene 2: Ah, but you, what can you know of this? (Katya, Varvara, Feklusha, Glasha, Tichon)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker, Victoria Simmonds, Claire Hampton, Kathleen Wilkinson, Peter Hoare

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    11. Act I Scene 2: Do you not love me any more? (Katya, Tichon)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker, Peter Hoare

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    12. Act I Scene 2: It's time, Tichon (Kabanicha, Tichon, Katya)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Henschel, Peter Hoare, Cheryl Barker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    13. Act II Scene 1: There now, you're always boasting (Kabanicha, Katya)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Jane Henschel, Cheryl Barker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    14. Act II Scene 1: It's so warm indoors (Varvara, Katya, Dikoi, Kabanicha)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Victoria Simmonds, Cheryl Barker, Gwynne Howell, Jane Henschel

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    15. Act II Scene 1: No, no, no one, yet my heart was beating (Katya)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    16. Act II Scene 1: It's nothing much (Dikoi, Kabanicha)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Gwynne Howell, Jane Henschel

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    17. Act II Scene 1: Intermezzo II

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    18. Act II Scene 2: Introduction

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    19. Act II Scene 2: Nobody here yet! (Kudryash, Boris)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Peter Wedd, Robert Brubaker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    20. Act II Scene 2: Far away my love is gone across the water (Varvara, Kudryash, Boris)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Victoria Simmonds, Peter Wedd, Robert Brubaker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    21. Act II Scene 2: Is that you, Katerina Petrovna? (Boris, Katya)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Robert Brubaker, Cheryl Barker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    22. Act II Scene 2: So you've found each other (Varvara, Boris, Kudryash, Katya)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Victoria Simmonds, Robert Brubaker, Peter Wedd, Cheryl Barker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    23. Act III Scene 1: Raining! There's a storm coming (Kuligin, Kudryash, Dikoi)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Owen Webb, Peter Wedd, Gwynne Howell

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    24. Act III Scene 1: Psst! Psst! Boris, listen to me! (Varvara, Boris)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Victoria Simmonds, Robert Brubaker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    25. Act III Scene 1: Oh, Varvara! I shall die! (Katya, Zena, Varvara, Chorus, Kudryash, Dikoi, Kabanicha, Tichon)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Chorus, Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker, Sian Meinir, Victoria Simmonds, Peter Wedd, Gwynne Howell, Jane Henschel, Peter Hoare

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    26. Act III Scene 2: Ah, Glasha! It's awful to think of it (Tichon, Glasha, Varvara, Kudryash)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Peter Hoare, Kathleen Wilkinson, Victoria Simmonds, Peter Wedd

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    27. Act III Scene 2: No! Nobody here (Katya, Kuligin)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker, Owen Webb

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    28. Act III Scene 2: And yet death won't come to me (Katya, Boris)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker, Robert Brubaker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    29. Act III Scene 2: Thanks be to God! (Boris, Katya)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Robert Brubaker, Cheryl Barker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    30. Act III Scene 2: No, not that! (Katya, Boris)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker, Robert Brubaker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    31. Act III Scene 2: Birds will sing as they fly above me (Katya)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Cheryl Barker

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

    32. Act III Scene 2: Hey there, a woman has jumped in the river! (Kuligin, Passer-by, Dikoi, Glasha, Tichon, Kabanicha)

      Composer: Leoš Janáček

      Ensemble: Welsh National Opera Orchestra

      Performer: Owen Webb, Philip Lloyd-Holtam, Gwynne Howell, Kathleen Wilkinson, Peter Hoare, Jane Henschel

      Conductor: Carlo Rizzi


Rizzi and his superb Welsh Opera forces now grace the Janacek canon.

This is the fifth Janácek opera in Chandos’s Opera in English series, and with vivid, well separated sound, balancing the voices in front of the orchestra, the first impression is how clear the words are from the singers of the Welsh National Opera production on which the recording is based. This is a very welcome companion to the outstanding English version of The Makropulos Case (4/07) conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.

Carlo Rizzi, who conducted the live performances for WNO, is a comparably persuasive Janácek interpreter. It is fascinating to compare this version with Mackerras’s Decca recording (12/05) with the Vienna Philharmonic and an excellent, mainly Czech cast, Elisabeth Söderström taking the title-role. If that recording is marginally richer and weightier than the new Chandos, the strings of WNO play with comparable refinement. Rizzi’s interpretation in all three acts is a degree more urgent, with speeds consistently faster, no doubt reflecting his experience of conducting it live.

As in the English Makropulos Case, the principal singer is Cheryl Barker, fresh, clear and powerful, more girlish-sounding than Söderström. Jane Henschel is outstanding as Marfa Kabanova, the rich widow who persecutes her daughter-in-law, wonderfully rich and firm throughout her range. The three tenor roles are exceptionally well taken, even if the contrasts between Robert Brubaker as Boris, Peter Wedd as Kudryash and Peter Hoare as Tichon, husband of Katya and son of Marfa, are not ideally marked. Gwynne Howell as the merchant Dikoi, uncle of Boris, is also excellent.

The old Norman Tucker translation is used with some minor amendments by Rodney Blumer, nom de plume of critic Rodney Milnes, with words admirably clear throughout, adding to the dramatic impact of the piece. Another outstanding issue in the Opera in English series.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [12/2007]