Leos Janácek: Kát'a Kabanová

by John Tyrrell (Editor)

Overview

Kát'a Kabanová is both the first Janácek opera to have been performed in Britain and the one which has received the most productions in Britain and the USA. In this book John Tyrrell brings together letters, early reviews and other documents (most of them translated from Czech for the first time) on the opera's composition and its early performances. A group of key interpretations of the opera ranges from one by the opera's German translator and Janácek's first biographer Max Brod to specially commissioned essays by Wilfrid Mellers and by David Pountney, producer of the highly successful Welsh National Opera/Scottish Opera Janácek cycle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521298537
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/17/1982
Series:	Cambridge Opera Handbooks
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction John Tyrrell; 2. Ostrovsky's play 'The Thunderstorm' Cynthia Marsh; 3. The libretto John Tyrrell; 4. Synopsis: innocence and guilt in 'Kát'a Kabanová' Wilfrid Mellers; 5. Composition and the Brno and Prague premières: letters and reviews John Tyrrell; 6. Stage history and reception (i) general survey Svatava Pribáñová (ii) 'Kát'a Kabanová' in the United Kingdom Adrienne Simpson (iii) 'Kát'a Kabanová' in the USA Barbara Hampton Renton; 7. Textual problems (i) the interludes Theodora Straková (ii) orchestration problems and the revised edition Charles Mackerras (iii) Janácek and the viola d'amore John Tyrrell; 8. Interpretations (i) 'Kátja Kabanová' Max Brod (1924) (ii) les autres oeuvres dramatiques: 'Katia Kabanova' Daniel Muller (1930) (iii) Janácek and 'Katya Kabanova' Winton Dean (1954) (iv) Leos Janácek K.-H. Wörner (1969) (v) producing 'Kát'a Kabanová' David Pountney (1982); Notes; Productions of 'Kát'a Kabanova' Svatava Pribáñová; Sources; Bibliography; Discography Malcolm Walker.