Káťa Kabanová

Felsenreitschule, Salzburg, Austria

Scene 1 from the opera "Káťa Kabanová", photo 2

Scene 2 from the opera "Káťa Kabanová", photo 3

Scene 3 from the opera "Káťa Kabanová", photo 4

Scene 5 from the opera "Káťa Kabanová", photo 5

Scene 6 from the opera "Káťa Kabanová", photo 6

Scene 7 from the opera "Káťa Kabanová", photo 7

Scene 8 from the opera "Káťa Kabanová", photo 8

All photos (8)

Select date and time

6:30 PM

Request for Tickets

Important Info

Festival: Salzburg Festival Summer 2022

Type: Opera

City: Salzburg, Austria

Starts at: 18:30

Acts: 3

Duration: 1h 45min

Sung in: Czech

Titles in: German,English

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Festival

Salzburg Festival Summer 2022

With 174 performances in 45 days at 17 venues, the Salzburg Festival presented a diverse program. Opera highlights included Mozart's The Magic Flute and Verdi's Aida. In addition to Jedermann, the drama programme included Schnitzler's Reigen. The concert programme featured the Ouverture Spirituelle under the title Sacrificium, as well as numerous other concerts with top-class orchestras and soloists.

Overview

"They used to kill women like me, people say." "I lived free like a bird": Káťa Kabanová confides wistfully to her sister-in-law Varvara how different her life used to be. She tells her how during mass at church she experienced celestial visions that moved her to tears, and how she had dreams of soaring high into the sky. The luminous, increasingly ecstatic music to which Janáček sets Káťa’s reminiscences reveals not only the figure’s rich interior life but also an irrepressible urge for freedom.

But since her marriage to Tichon the fire within Káťa is at risk of being smothered entirely. The situation she lives in is claustrophobic. Home is ruled despotically by her mother-in-law Kabanicha, the widow of a merchant. Conscious of material dependencies and in the name of tradition and morals, she makes sure that the required subservience is shown by woman to husband and young to old. Ground down by his mother’s constant carping, Tichon lacks the independence to be able to give his wife what she needs and seeks refuge in alcohol. When he departs on a journey for a few days, Varvara, who is aware of the mutual attraction between Káťa and the unmarried Boris, arranges a first night-time tryst for them. This uncaps all Káťa’s pent-up emotions: behind the desperate intensity with which she gives herself to Boris erupt needs that go far beyond a yearning for fulfilled love or shared passion. To Káťa, to go on living now seems more impossible than ever.
Leoš Janáček forged the libretto to Káťa Kabanová from a Czech translation of Alexander Ostrovsky’s play The Storm (1859), which is set in a small-town milieu dominated by wealthy merchants in mid-19th century Russia. Janáček dispensed with many of the specific socio-historical details — and thus also a substantial part of the concrete social criticism that characterizes Ostrovsky’s play. The opera concentrates on the protagonist and the individuals who directly determine her fate. Yet beyond the microcosm of the family, the social environment remains a palpable determining factor.
We are in a village or small town where a traditional value system, as upheld by Kabanicha, has degenerated into repressive convention. An atmosphere of coldness and torpor prevails, colliding with any desire for individual realization or true enjoyment of life. At the same time, the conflict in which Káťa finds herself through her relationship with Boris is an internal one, as she has made the moral yardsticks of her environment so much her own that a crisis of conscience is inevitable. Káťa articulates little of what motivates or oppresses her, or what she yearns for, and is perhaps largely unaware of it — something that makes the figure so true-to-life — but hypocrisy is foreign to her. Unlike Varvara and her lover Kudrjáš, she is unable to blithely disregard internalized moral norms. Even in Act I, the memory of her dreams of flying suddenly turns into panicstricken fear of the ‘sin’ into which desire for another man threatens to plunge her. In Act III, as a storm rages (outdoors as well as inside Káťa), her feelings of guilt impel her to confess to the undiscovered betrayal of her marriage. Káťa is imprisoned in a society in which she cannot exist; she will ultimately choose death over this mental and spiritual violation.
Janáček brings to his portrayal of Káťa the sympathy and subtle sensitivity that he devotes — eschewing all stereotypes — to all his major female figures. First performed in Brno in 1921, Káťa Kabanová marks the beginning of the composer’s final, extraordinarily productive decade. Janáček had now found his unmistakable language as a musical dramatist — a language that conveys the characters and situations, psychology and atmosphere in highly concentrated form, and in its naked immediacy and power gets directly under the listener’s skin.

Christian Arseni
Translation: Sophie Kidd

History

Premiere of this production: 23 November 1921, National Theatre, Brno

Káťa Kabanová (also known in various spellings including Katia, Katja, Katya, and Kabanowa) is an opera in three acts, with music by Leoš Janáček to a libretto by Vincenc Červinka, based on The Storm, a play by Alexander Ostrovsky. The opera was also largely inspired by Janáček's love for Kamila Stösslová. This is often considered his first "mature" opera, despite the fact that he was 67 when it was premiered. Káťa Kabanová is a clear response to Janáček's feelings for Kamila, and the work is dedicated to her.

Synopsis

Place: The Russian town of Kalinov on the shores of the Volga River
Time: The 1860s

Act 1
Vána Kudrjás admires the view of the Volga River, which amuses the more literal-minded housekeeper of the adjoining Kabanov estate. Two men approach, Dikoj and his nephew, Boris Grigorjevic, where Dikoj is berating Boris. Dikoj learns that Kabanicha, the Kabanov family matriarch, is not at home. Dikoj leaves, and Boris explains to Vána Kudrjás why he tolerates the abuse: his parents are dead, and to be able collect his inheritance, he must respect his uncle no matter what his uncle says to him. Boris also tells Vána Kudrjás that he is secretly in love with Káťa, the young wife of Tichon. Káťa appears and Kabanicha reproaches her son Tichon – Kata's husband – for his inattentiveness. Tichon and Káťa try to calm her down, but Kabanicha will have none of it, telling Tichon that he spoils Káťa. Tichon complains to Varvara, the family's foster daughter, who rebukes him for retreating into drinking more than defending Káťa.

In the house, Káťa tells Varvara of her happy childhood, and dreams of having a man who truly loves her. Tichon enters to say good-bye, as he is journeying to Kazan on business, for Kabanicha. Káťa asks to accompany him or for him not to go, but he insists. Káťa then asks him to make her swear an oath to speak to no strangers during his absence, which puzzles Tichon. Kabanicha announces that Tichon must go, but not before instructing Káťa how to behave in his absence. Tichon dutifully says that Káťa must treat Kabanicha like her own mother and always act properly. He bows to Kabanicha and kisses her and Kát'a before he departs.

Act 2
The women are working on embroidery. Kabanicha criticizes Káťa for not appearing more sorrowful at Tichon's absence. After Kabanicha leaves, Varvara shows Káťa the key to the far part of the garden. Varvara intends to meet Vána, her lover, there. She hints at the same suggestion for Káťa, and puts the key in her hand. Káťa is hesitant, but then surrenders to fate and will meet Boris. She steps outside as evening comes on. Kabanicha reappears with Dikoj, who is drunk and complaining that people take advantage of his softhearted nature. However, Kabanicha chastises him.

Vána Kudrjás is waiting for Varvara in the garden. Boris then unexpectedly appears, after receiving a message to go there. Varvara arrives, and she and Vána go for a walk by the river. Káťa then appears, and Boris declares his love for her. She is at first worried about social ruin, but finally she reciprocates, confessing her secret feelings for him. They embrace and themselves leave for a walk. Vána and Varvara return, as she explains her precautions in case Kabanicha suddenly appears. Káťa and Boris are heard in wordless, ecstatic duet as Vána and Varvara say that it is time to return home.

Act 3
Ten days later
Vána Kudrjás and Kuligin are strolling near the river when an approaching storm causes them to take shelter in a ruined building. Other people join them, including Dikoj. Vána tries to calm Dikoj with scientific explanations about a new invention, the lightning rod. However, this only angers Dikoj, who insists that lightning is not caused by electricity but is the punishment from God. The rain dies down, and people start to leave the shelter. Vána meets Boris and Varvara. Varvara says that Tichon has returned, and Káťa is very agitated. Kabanicha arrives with Tichon and Káťa. The storm returns, and people assume initially that this is what upsets Káťa. However, she confesses to Tichon in front of everyone her assignation with Boris during her husband's absence. Then she runs out into the storm.

Evening approaches after the storm has ended. Tichon and a search party are looking for Káťa. At first among the party, Varvara and Vána then decide to leave the village for Moscow and start a new life. They leave, and as the searchers continue, Káťa appears. She knows that her confession has dishonoured her and humiliated Boris. She feels tormented and wants to meet Boris one more time. Boris appears and sees her, and the two embrace. Boris says that his uncle is sending him away to another town, but asks her what will become of her. As her sanity deteriorates, she first begs him to be allowed to accompany him, then insists that she could not and bids him farewell; he leaves in sorrow. After thinking of how nature will continue to flourish over her grave, Káťa throws herself into the river. Kuligin sees this from the far bank and calls for help. Tichon appears, followed by Kabanicha. Tichon tries to help Káťa but is restrained by Kabanicha; he blames her for Káťa's suicide. Dikoj appears with Káťa's body and lays her on the ground. Tichon cries over the body as, without any emotion, Kabanicha thanks the bystanders—or, as often done, the audience—for their help.

Venue Info

Felsenreitschule - Salzburg
Hofstallgasse 1

The Felsenreitschule (literally "rock riding school") is a theatre in Salzburg, Austria and a venue of the Salzburg Festival.

History

A first Baroque theatre was erected in 1693–94 at the behest of the Salzburg prince-archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun, according to plans probably designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. Built in the former Mönchsberg quarry for conglomerate rock used in the new Salzburg Cathedral construction, it was located next to the archiepiscopal stables (at the site of the present Großes Festspielhaus) and used as a summer riding school and for animal hunts. The audience was seated in 96 arcades carved into the Mönchsberg rock on three floors. After the secularisation of the prince-archbishopric, the premises were used by the cavalry of the Austrian Imperial-Royal Army as well as by Bundesheer forces after World War I.

From 1926, the Felsenreitschule was used as an open-air theatre for performances of the Salzburg Festival. With the auditorium reversed, the former audience arcades now served as a natural stage setting. The first production was Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters, directed by Max Reinhardt. In 1933, Clemens Holzmeister designed for Max Reinhardt the "Faust Town", a multiple-stage setting for Reinhardt's legendary production of Goethe's Faust.

In 1948 Herbert von Karajan first used the Felsenreitschule as an opera stage, for performances of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. This was followed in 1949 by the premiere of Carl Orff's setting of the ancient tragedy Antigone by Sophocles, translated into German by Friedrich Hölderlin, conducted by Ferenc Fricsay. Between 1968 and 1970, the Felsenreitschule was again remodeled according to plans by Clemens Holzmeister and inaugurated with Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio under the baton of Karl Böhm.

Architecture

The stage has a width of 40 metres (130 ft), and 4 metres (13 ft) understage. Also renovated was the cantilevered grandstand with the underlying scene dock. A light-tight, rain tarp to dampen the noise and protect the stage was also added. This roof can be opened. The theater holds 1412 seats and 25 standing places.

Between the summers of 2010 and 2011 festival, the roof was renewed: The new design added 700 square metres (7,500 sq ft) of floor space for equipment and rehearsal rooms. The new pitched roof consists of three mobile segment surfaces and is on five telescopic arms and can be extended and retracted in six minutes. Suspension points on telescopic supports for stage equipment (hoists), improved sound and heat insulation, and two lighting bridges optimize the action on stage. The Felsenreitschule shares its foyer with the Kleines Festspielhaus (House for Mozart).

In popular culture
The Felsenreitschule was used as a location for the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music. It appears as the site of the Salzburg music festival from which the von Trapp family disappear.