An unhappily married woman who tries to break out of the prison of conventions and dies tragically, a cold-hearted mother-in-law for whom morality is more important than the happiness and well-being of her son and his wife, and the bored nephew of a merchant - in this personal tension is where the action of Janáček's opera takes place, in breath-taking confinement.
»There is much that is touching, Slavic softness, depth of feeling in this piece!«, was the expression of the Moravian composer when he turned to his sixth stage work in 1920, an opera based on Alexander Ostrovsky's play »The Thunderstorm«. This time, too, he had meticulously and carefully studied the intonation in which people of different origins and social backgrounds express themselves and communicate with one another - not only what is said seemed important to him, but also how the speech was spoken. In »Katja Kabanova«, Janáček takes his method of »speech melody« to a new artistic level. The special atmosphere of the characters and their personal and social environment always resonate, in a condensed and therefore more penetrating form. And in the end even the wide Volga stream sings, and a frightening thunderstorm unloads with all its might. Nature becomes the mirror of human soul life.
