CRITIC'S PICK | ANNE MIDGETTE A Star to Shed Light on Janacek's Bleak Operatic Landscape OPINIONS may differ as to what constitutes a highlight at the Metropolitan Opera these days, but few disagreed last season about Karita Mattila's performance as...
CRITIC'S PICK | ANNE MIDGETTE
A Star to Shed Light on Janacek's Bleak Operatic Landscape
OPINIONS may differ as to what constitutes a highlight at the Metropolitan Opera these days, but few disagreed last season about Karita Mattila's performance as Strauss's Salome, a tour de force of singing and acting.
Though not offering Ms. Mattila a new production this season, the Met is giving her something just as good: the title role in a revival of "Katya Kabanova," by Leos Janacek (opening Dec. 17 and closing on New Year's Day). While Janacek's operas are becoming more widely performed and acknowledged as the masterpieces they are (not least because titles enable audiences to understand them), they are still not done as often as they deserve to be. The Met had never presented "Katya Kabanova" before it introduced the current staging, by Jonathan Miller, in 1991.