Kata Kabanova

A storm of longing. Richard Jones’s intimate, stripped-back staging beautifully realises Janáček’s opera of yearning and destruction, which stars Corinne Winters. Jakub Hrůša draws out the expressive lines of the Czech composer’s score, which is infused with traditional folk melodies of his – and Hrůša’s – home country. Trapped in a loveless marriage, a claustrophobic community and under the authoritative rule of her mother-in-law, a young and vulnerable woman is swept up in a passionate affair. But newly awakened hope soon turns to despair as Kát’a is consumed by waves of longing and guilt.