.I had Mackerras's performance of 1977 with Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom.I am glad to have this previous performance of 1973 with Sadler's West orchestra and Lorna Haywood..

Kata Kabanova is one Janacek's most beautiful operas and his most tragic. Charles Mackerras was one of the great forces, if not the greatest, behind restoring it to the repertoire. This performance sung in an excellent English translation is superb. Lorna Haywood sounds lovely as Kata, bringing the audience with her up to her untimely and unfair suicide. Her voice would later acquire an unpleasant vibrato that verged on a wobble, but that was a decade or so in the future. Sylvia Fisher makes a hateful Kabanicha and Dennis Wicks an oily, gross Dikoj. Kenneth Woollam is a passionate Boris, making the most of his scenes with Kata. Paul Crooks and Barbara Walker are first-rate as the secondary, more happy couple. Robert Ferguson (Donner in Goodall's Rhinegold performances) is a properly sniveling Tichon. But really everyone is excellent. The sound is beautiful, broadcast stereo that is glitch-free except for a few brief moments of minor radio static in the third act. Any Janacek lover should have this. I am very grateful to Opera Depot for making it available to a wider audience!

In 1951, Katya Kabanova was the first Janacek opera staged in Britain. The conductor was the 25 year old Charles Mackerras. Mackerras first recorded Janacek in 1959 and this recording included the overture to Katya Kabanova. Mackerras subsequently conducted this opera in Brno and in an interview Mackerras said that the Czech orchestra played naturally and this present Sadler’s Wells performance “ran them a good second” due to the Sadler’s Wells Orchestra’s enthusiasm and the singers ability to develop an “English Janacek style”.In 1976, Mackerras recorded Katya Kabanova with the Vienna Philharmonic which began a five Janacek opera recording cycle with Decca.In 1997, Mackerras recorded Katya Katanova again, this time for Supraphon.In this performance, the first recorded version of Katya Kabanova by Charles Mackerras, the eccentricities of Janacek’s orchestration is evident. Janacek’s music is not based on folk music like Bartok’s music but rather, is conceived “by feel”. This unorthodoxy which originates from Debussy, uses the whole tone scale constantly but it sounds nothing like Debussy. Janacek’s unconventionality is part of his originality and Janacek’s compositions, which at the time of this recording were thought by many to be unplayable, should not be made to sound like Wagner, Puccini, Strauss or Dvorak.

What a treat to hear this opera in a language I can understand! I agree with everything Stephen H. says in his review below. An excellent performance of this heart-wrenching work, with fine singing and crystal-clear sound. Best purchase I've made on Opera Depot.

This performance was the first I taped live off the radio as a teenager and was my introduction to Janacek. I played it over and over until the cassette tape decided it had had enough, but my memories of the performance do not deceive me! This in one of the great Katya performances, not only because Mackerras is in the pit producing that particular sound world that Janacek conjures up in all its glory, but also that in Lorna Haywood, he has the most complete Katya I have ever heard. She is radiant above the stave, incisive in the middle and lower reaches of her voice, but everything is put to dramatic purpose - just listen to her brushing off of Tichon towards the end of act one, and the purity she finds for the end of the final act. This is an intensely moving performance on all levels, well supported by Barbara Walker's lovely soprano Varvara and Sylvia Fisher's terrifying Kabanicha (ok, the voice is not what it was, but frankly, who cares given the power of this performance). Men are all good, diction excellent and the sound is all very fine. Do not miss this!

Oh, would that this Katya were not afflicted by a disc-reading error that renders the first track of CD 2 unplayable. Otherwise the sound is excellent, broadcast stereo. Lorna Haywood is an excellent Katya, missing only the shattering intimacy of Elisabeth Soederstroem. The supporting cast is a mixed affair, with Paul Crook's Kudrjas sounding like an aged pander, Robert Ferguson overtaxed by Tichon's tessitura but with Sylvia Fisher making maximal use of diminished vocal resources at a fearsome Kabanicha. Barbara Walker (Varvara), Kenneth Woollam (Boris) and Dennis Wicks (Dikoj) are all wonderful, and Sir Charles Mackerras perfectly captures both the sensual beauty and the heartache of Janacek's score, which he conducted like no other.

Great performance from everyone. Fisher maybe bit over the hill by this time but stunning in this.Haywood is a very fine Katya,even better was Ava June. This performance would stand against any in the world, even today.