Leoš Janáček’s best-kept secret, his ravishingly beautiful and devastatingly moving opera Katya Kabanova, is enjoying a surge in popularity.

This story of one woman’s emotional collapse and bid for escape from her suffocating community was fuelled by the composer’s love for a woman resembling Katya herself. It brought from the Czech composer the most intense music of his career, a work of lacerating violence, compelling tension and wondrous lyricism.

In collaboration with Bergen National Opera, Jiří Rožeň conducts this performance of Janáček’s opera in which the orchestra is arguably the most vital protagonist of all. Shocking, wounding but rapturous and exultant, there is no opera quite like Katya Kabanova.

Don’t miss this chance to see its emotional and literal storms brought to life in a new production by Barbora Horáková Joly and a tantalizing cast headed by Ausrine Stundyte.

Photos from the opera:

Hear Stage Director Barbora Horáková Joly explain her take on the opera:

- Dette er en av de operaene jeg føler at jeg blir dratt ordentlig inn i handlingen, slik jeg gjør i en vellykket Ibsen-oppsetning, forteller Per Boye Hansen, en av Norges fremste opera-eksperter.

KATYA KABANOVA
Opera in three acts

Leoš Janáček / Music
Leoš Janáček / Libretto
based on Alexander Ostrovsky’s drama The Storm, translated by Vincenc Červinka

CREATIVE TEAM
Jiří  Rožeň / Conductor
Barbora Horáková Joly / Stage director (read bio)
Thilo Ullrich / Set design
Eva-Maria Van Acker / Costume design
Sascha Zauner / Lighting design
Håkon Matti Skrede / Chorus master

CAST
Ausrine Stundyte / Katya
Stephan Rügamer / Tichon
Katarina Dalayman / Kabanicha
Håvard Stensvold / Dikoj
Ladislav Elgr / Boris
Arnheiður Eiríksdóttir / Varvara
James Ley / Kudrjáš
Ludvig Lindström / Kuligin
Siv Oda Hagerupsen / Glaša
Mathilda Bryngelsson / Fekluša

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra 
Edvard Grieg Vocal Ensemble and singers from the Bergen Philharmonic Choir

4, 6, 8 and 10 November 2023
Grieghallen

Sung in Czech, surtitles in Norwegian and English
Duration: approx. 2 hours and 15 minutes including 30 minutes interval

Introduction by Gunnar Danbolt (in Norwegian) one hour before each performance in the foyer in Grieghallen

A new production by Bergen National Opera
Presented by Bergen National Opera in collaboration with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Edvard Grieg Choirs