The operas of Czech composer Leoš Janáček are much of a rarity in our neck of the woods. Janáček’s name last featured locally in 2017 when Stuart Maunder directed a vividly enchanting production of The Cunning Little Vixen for Victorian Opera.
Now Artistic Director of the company, Maunder is sharing his passion for Janáček’s oeuvre – many of which are richly embedded with psychological inquiry – with a simmering, cinematic-like new production of Katya Kabanova.
The opera premiered in 1921 during a period when movie theatres had cemented their place as popular entertainment venues. St Kilda’s grand Palais Theatre belongs to that era and has inspired director Heather Fairbairn, assistant director and camera operator Benjamin Sheen and videographer Robert Brown’s painstakingly considered approach in combining stage and cinema with profoundly stirring results.
Living under the same roof of a monstrously meddling mother-in-law, the opera tells the story of Katya, a woman trapped in a repressive, stale and loveless marriage to Tichon. Longing for freedom and love, Katya has a brief affair with Boris during Tichon’s absence but is consumed by guilt. After confessing, she faces harsh judgment and ultimately takes her own life.
Originally set in a fictional 19th-century Czech town on the banks of the Volga River and based on the play The Storm by Aleksandr Ostrovsky, emotional and societal oppression weigh heavily.
Minus only the whiff of popcorn, the sense of cinema is established immediately. A huge screen advertises the company’s 2026 season as the audience takes their seats. When the eclectically tensioned overture gets underway, Katya Kabanova, the movie – opening credits and all – begins in a black and white expression of elements that carry significance. These include the flowing waters of a river, a female figure anxious in escape and a tranquil landscape from which a jetty projects, later to be realised on stage where Katya ultimately takes her life.
The screen gives way to a rundown, semi-industrial construct of metal frames and cyclone fencing. Then another features at the rear where real-time moving images are projected as two camera operators judiciously film the action on stage.
Fairbairn’s interpretation is without specific reference to place and perfectly contemporary. She is aided brilliantly by creatives Savanna Wegman (sets and costumes) and Niklas Pajanti (lighting) And it’s cleverly performed without interval over its near 100-minute duration as a cinema experience.
Rather than competing with each other, the duality of stage action and screen compliments Janáček’s work and Ostrovsky’s narrative with a magnified, inescapably absorbing, total composition.
Just how significant a film score is in colouring the narrative, which is invariably taken for granted, is made evident with film and videography comfortably fused to a score that intriguingly lends itself to the art form.
The camera zooms in and often breeches personal distance to give every possible detail that suggests the outward weight of public scrutiny on Katya’s every move. It’s a powerful effect that culminates in Katya grabbing it and hurling it away to signify a tragic freedom when only at death’s door.
Inwardly, Katya victimises her own anguished self by unfair guilt for having entered into an affair. That psychological torture is both palpable through imagery, both real and symbolic, and soprano Desiree Frahn’s compelling performance in tracing Katya’s grim reality.
The inclusion of several dishevelled Katya lookalikes traversing the stage in haunting hypnotic form not only emphasises her repressed nature but, intended or not, hints at the hopelessness faced by women before her.
Frahn leads a splendid cast with first class acting and vocal expertise. Imbued with expressive power, lyrical warmth and soulful purity, Frahn adorns black and white imagery with emotive chiaroscuro and discerning dynamics to give the title role the immensity it demands.
Fluid and toasty tenor Andrew Goodwin’s emotively calm but heartily assertive Boris is, despite the ruin that comes and show of cowardice, an affecting contrast to Katya’s anxious energy. Tenor Michael Petruccelli brings robust vocals to Katya’s timid and distrustful husband Tichon and, as one of the stage’s great versatile artists, Antoinette Halloran sports a fierce soprano, alongside looks that could kill, as the terrifying and dominating (in all rooms of the house) Kabanicha.
Supporting roles are amply filled. Mellifluous soprano Emily Edmonds is an especially appealing presence as Katya’s younger but mature and buoyant half-sister Varvara. Golden tenor Douglas Kelly stands out as her affable lover Kudrjaš and Adrian Tamburini studs the drama terrifically with bass-baritone authority and wicked undertones as Boris’ cantankerous uncle Dikoj.
2024 OperaChaser Award for Young Developing Artist co-recipients Bailey Montgomerie and Michaela Cadwgan deftly handle bite-sized roles Kuligin and Glascha respectively.
And how Janáček’s rich and turbulent score bristled at Tuesday’s opening night under conductor Alexander Briger with the brilliant young musicians of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) Orchestra! It’s the third collaboration between VO and ANAM that showcases present talent and a bright future for hopefully many more.
Sad to say, with only two performances, Katya Kabanova‘s life, like its protagonist’s, is awfully cut short. But VO have a remarkable staging that, for dollars in the coffers, opera companies near and far might want to get their hands on.
Katya Kabanova
Palais Theatre, Lower Esplanade, St Kilda
Performance: Tuesday 14 October 2025
Season continues to 16 October 2025
Information and Bookings: www.victorianopera.com.au
Images: Desiree Frahn and Andrew Goodwin in Katya Kabanova – photo by Jeff Busby | Antoinette Halloran, Michaela Cadwgan and Belinda Paterson in Katya Kabanova – photo by Jeff Busby | Emily Edmonds, Antoinette Halloran, Michael Petruccelli and Desiree Frahn in Katya Kabanova – photo by Jeff Busby | Andrew Goodwin and Desiree Frahn in Katya Kabanova – photo by Jeff Busby | Desiree Frahn and Andrew Goodwin in Katya Kabanova – photo by Jeff Busby | Emily Edmonds and Douglas Kelly in Katya Kabanova – photo by Jeff Busby
Review: Paul Selar