Leoš Janáček, Kátja Kabanová (1921)

Well, now the only Janáček operas I haven't seen are the ones that are rarely performed and not to my knowledge anywhere available in video form. This sort of has the same tenor as Jenůfa, only without the happy ending.

The story is extremely simple: Kátja is recently married, but she's in love with another man, who also is in love with her. She freaks out when her husband goes off on a business trip, because she thinks it means she won't have the willpower to avoid cheating on him. She doesn't and and she does. As a result, she is eaten alive by remorse and jumps in the river and drowns, though I have to note that as presented, there is absolutely no way that, realistically, she was there long enough to drown before being fished out. There's also some other fairly superfluous detail involving her nightmare mother-in-law (who at one point complains that now her son is married and he seems to love his wife more than her--Freudian!) and her lover having an uncle whom he has to obey if he wants any inheritance, but that's basically it.

Now, I know there's no point in viewing the story in modern terms; no point in saying "Kátja, you are overreacting here to a really excessive degree." I mean, she even is for the time, but by our standards, definitely. The drama is what it is, and obviously people took these things more to heart than we would now (not that people can't still feel guilt and shame about cheating like this, but I doubt it drives too many of them to suicide). Still, I'm forced to admit that I had trouble really getting into this on a visceral level. Jenůfa may be similarly of its time, but the emotion there I found a lot more palpable.

As for the music, well, I know by now what Janáček sounds like. I like a lot of his music, but I find his lack of traditional arias or anything like that a bit wearing. The wikipedia page compares his late operas (and this one in particular) to Puccini, but boy do I ever not hear the Puccini here. Definitely of his time, for better or worse. If you hurry, you can probably still see this production for free! It transplants the action to some sort of Eastern Bloc city, which seems appropriate to me. Please enjoy! Or not. It's none of my business.