A BLO first
Leos Janacek's Katya Kabanova will be performed by Boston Lyric Opera for the first time in the company's history this March. This production, which will be directed Tim Albery and conducted by David Angus, also marks the BLO debut of Cuban American Soprano Elaine Alvarez in the lead role. Since her breakout debut with Chicago's Lyric Opera in 2007 as Mimi in La Boheme, Alvarez has steadily built her reputation in opera houses across the world as one of today's most talented young performers.
First performed in 1921, Katya Kabanova traces the trials of the title character, who lives on the shores of the Volga in the 1860s, as she finds solace from her cowardly husband in the arms of another man. Considered one of the Czech composer's first really mature works, it was inspired by his love for his young muse Kamila Stosslova. BLO's staging will be sung in an English translation by Norman Tucker.