WEEKEND COLUMNISTS Without the tension of illicit love, opera would be a dull place. And without the engine of suppressed sexual longing (for his muse, Kamila Stösslová), Janácek would probably not have composed Katya Kabanova, his opera about the tyranny of small-town life. Janácek lived out his fantasies vicariously. But instead of letting them run riot in a blaze of self-indulgence, as most of us do, he channelled them into a searing 90-minute portrait of a woman whose marriage, like his own, was unfulfilled.
Small-town life has changed a lot in the 90 years since Katya was conceived, but the stifling rituals Janácek put into music still ring true, as Scottish Opera’s audiences will doubtless corroborate in coming months during this new production’s tour of 21 village halls and municipal theatres. The company’s annual small-stage tour remains one of the wonders of the opera world: in no other country is such a wide geographical and demographic spread of communities given direct exposure to the riches of metropolitan opera.
